Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to become aware of, to understand.

1788		T. Jefferson Writings VI 454: I endeavoured to get, as well as I could, into the state of national credit there [DA].
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1998		I. Welsh Filth 102: Your officer said not to get into it with them.

2. (UK Und.) to suspect.

1851

Liverpool Mercury 14 Jan. 38/2: I never was got into by the police.

3. to penetrate either the vagina or anus; in weak use, to seduce.

[1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 10: O! but says Jenny, / I fear you’ll be in me; / ’Sblood and ownds, if I am, sure ’twill do you no harm].
1867		Rosa Fielding 70: ‘Why surely [...] you never allowed him to get into you? That would be very wrong I know’.
1870		Cythera’s Hymnal 56: At he door I don’t rap, / But pulls down my flap, / And gets into my wife in the cellar.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) II 222: So much desire had I to get into this girl — simply because she was a virgin.
1893		‘Bob Sterling’ Town-Bull 13: ‘Lots of men would pay you well to get into you’.
1922		F. Harris My Life and Loves I 61: Again I dreamed of Lucille and again I was trying, trying in vain to get into her when again the spasm of pleasure overtook me.
1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 75: ‘You ever get in that, Kirk?’ ‘No, but I wish I could’.
1955		F. Brookhouser Now I Lay Me Down 24: They go out ten, fifteen times before he gets into her.
1964		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 240: Since I’ve got into your daughter, / I’ve had trouble passing water, / Now I guess we’re even all around.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 18: get into (v.): To pedicate; also, to copulate with a woman.
1970		G. Scott-Heron Vulture (1996) 23: ‘Why don’t you hostess me on back, so I can see what I can get into.’ ‘Wow! You do move fast!’.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 109: Sneed had never had a homosexual relationship [...] but sometimes wondered about two men getting into each other; whether there was as much enjoyment as from fucking women.
1980		J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 161: You would still want to get into a built woman and you wouldn’t care what color she was.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 98: He was [...] thinking how much he’d like to get into one of the young Russian woman gymnasts on TV.
1988		N. Eastwood Gardener Got Her n.p.: Howard sank down between them, and she felt the fat round head of his cock socking into the slick little pit of her cunt mouth [...] ‘Yes, yesssss, get into me!’ she hissed.
2000		W.T. Vollmann Royal Family 360: At the next table sat [...] a six-year-old boy. I’d like to get into that, Smooth said.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 38: The great Australian compliment in relation to any woman is [...] ‘I wouldn’t mind getting into that.’.
2007		R. Milward Apples (2023) 80: [H]e was charming when he was trying to get into you.

4. (orig. N.Z.) to attack, whether lit. in a fight, or fig. food, a task etc.

1914		B.J. Brookes diary 6 Nov. 🌐 We were therefore rather anxious to get into it, for as we said to each other ‘It will be awful returning home without having done anything’.
1921		Dos Passos Three Soldiers 138: ‘Why the hell don’t they let us git into it? [i.e. a battle]’ he said suddenly.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 101: We were all getting into a home-brew when prematurely the beverage ran out.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 12: Let’s fucken get down to the ground and get into those twats!
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 73: If Heather finds out, she’ll be into you about this tonnage levy scheme.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 166: ‘They be, “Look at them hos.” That’s when we get into it’.
2008		in J. Miller Getting Played 101: ‘I got into it with a boy because he said something to me. … I said, “Shut up talking to me!” and he got mad. So we just started arguing and stuff.
2012		M. MacLean ‘Just Like Maria’ in ThugLit Oct. [ebook] ‘Miguel got into it with one of his friends. Something about money’.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 184: [He] was reluctant to get into it, even with an old stager.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 18: You never got into it with your boy?

5. (US) to defraud, to become indebted to.

1924		D. Hammett ‘Who Killed Bob Teal?’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 267: Your husband had been cooking the books for some time, and got into his partner for something like two hundred thousand dollars.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 344: Someone had picked a long shot at Hollywood park and got into him for something like three hundred cartons, which he still hadn’t come up with.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 252: ‘How he managed to get into his connection for that much [i.e. $10,000] I do not know’.

6. to enjoy, to become involved in.

1911		Harrisburg Teleg. (PA) 30 May 6/2: ‘You’re the prettiest girl I know, Molly. Let’s get into that waltz’.
1929		D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 36: How’d you get into this?
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 16: They’d got into a thing over an item that had somehow managed to get itself printed in the Journal.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 24: We were sure to find something to get into.
1976		Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 27: Once I got into it, the school wasn’t as bad.
1981		M. Baker Nam (1982) 31: I started getting into it after three months. Getting into being a grunt.
1989		Kirk & Madsen After The Ball 256: But ‘gay lib’ wants us to march up and down the streets with pink triangles and our dicks hanging out. I can’t get into that.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] He liked to kick right back and get into it.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 81: Everyone in the room [...] stopped what they were doing and turned to the stage. Then they started getting into it.
2024		D. Rucker Life’s Too Short 25: Give my mom props. She gets into Barry [Manilow]—a little.

7. to develop, to happen; usu. in phr. what’s got into you/him/her?

1946		D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 29: I dunno what’s got into you tonight. You’ve never been like this before. You’ve dumped plenty of fellows before.
1959		E. De Roo Young Wolves 13: What got into you anyway?
1962		A. Wesker Chips with Everything II xi: Blimey, what’s gotten into you? Jumping at me like that.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 237: What’s got into you? Papa would say; and she’d cry.

8. to argue about.

1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 83: Are we going to get into that again?
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 247: We really got into it, into it.
1970		E. Tidyman Shaft 110: I don’t want to get into this with you again.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines xx: If I got into sumpin’ at school [...] I couldn’t run on home.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 38: Let’s not get into it tonight, we got the rest of our lives to kiss and make up.

9. to grow close to.

1969		Fabian & Byrne Groupie (1997) ?: The more I got into Davey, the more I felt I loved him.
2007		W.D. Myers ‘the real deal’ in What They Found 172: ‘I think she still might have some feeling for him. I got to check that out before I get too far into her’.