Green’s Dictionary of Slang

easy as falling off a log adj.

very easy indeed.

1839		N.O. Picayune 29 Mar. 2/2: [He] won the heat ‘just as easy as rolling off a log’ [DA].
1845		W.T. Porter Big Bear of Arkansas (1847) 21: You can now roll a barrel of whiskey into my yard in high water from a boat, as easy as falling off a log.
1851		M. Reid Scalp-Hunters I 283: ‘Thar’s one kind o’ shootin’, said he, ‘that’s jest as easy as fallin’ off a log.’.
1862		G.W. Whitman in Civil War Letters 21 July 59: He will walk into Richmond just as easy as roling [sic] off a log.
1862		in R.G. Carter Four Brothers in Blue (1978) 83: A show of greenbacks procured a man’s discharge from the service as easy as tumbling off a log.
1863		Smoky Hill & Repub. Union (KS) 18 Apr.1/5: The explanation is as natural and easy as ‘falling off a log’.
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 47: He [...] as he himself asserts, ‘escaped as easy as falling off a log!’.
1874		Rutland Dly Globe (VT) 30 Mar. 2/1: Either thing would have been ‘as easy as tumbling off from a log’.
1879		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 8 Nov. 6/1: ‘Why, it’s as easy as rolling off a log when you’re asleep’.
1884		Dly Yellowstone Jrnl (MT) 19 Apr. 1/5: Most any one can kick a foot ball. It’s just as easy as falling off a log.
1887		L.A. Dly Herald 11 Aug. 8/1: It is as easy as a turtle’s tumble off a log.
1888		Aberdeen Eve. Exp. 30 May 4/1: It is as easy as falling off a log to be a philanthropist with other people’s money.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 14 Jan. 6/6: Simple as falling off a log when you know how.
1897		Siler & Houseman Fight of the Century 37: It isn’t as easy as rolling off a log to hold this job down.
1899		C.J.C. Hyne Further Adventures of Captain Kettle 186: I shall marry the fair Teresa. Simple as tumbling off a house.
1900		J. Conrad Lord Jim 105: It’s as easy as falling off a log. Simply nothing to do; two six-shooters in his belt.
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 94: From a Deputy-Assistant-Sub-Inspector [...] to a swagman, bluey on shoulder and billy in hand, is as easy as falling off a playful moke.
1905		N. Davis Northerner 115: It will be just as easy ‘as falling off a log’.
1913		Van Loan ‘The Mexican Marvel’ in Lucky Seventh (2004) 185: We could pass this feller Buckner off as a Mexican as easy as rollin’ off a log.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 205: There are all sorts of laws about the places, but anyone who wants can get round them as easy as falling off a log.
1925		G.S. Schuyler Yellow Peril in Hatch & Hamalian Lost Plays of Harlem Renaissance (1996) 50: It’s easy as rollin’ off a log.
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 69: To a real Christian they were just as easy as falling off a log —.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 263: It’s as easy as rolling off a log.
1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 90: I had a look at the ‘Town Clown’ (policeman) and figured that he wasn’t too intelligent, and that I could get away with this as easy as falling off a log.
1936		(con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 982: Made thirteen grand on the market yesterday . . . easy as rollin’ off a log.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 179: You can make it as easy as falling off a log.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 154: She says it was as easy as falling off a log. You can get anything out of him when he’s drunk.
1946		T. Thursday ‘Raw, Medium, and Well Done’ in Blue Ribbon Western June 🌐 It was as simple as falling off a greased pig!
1947		C.J. Lovell ‘The Background of Mark Twain’s Vocabulary’ in AS XXII:2 88: Unquestionably, he gave literary currency to many such well known terms as to pass the buck, high-muck-a-muck, shenanigan, land-office business, Mick, and as easy as rolling off a log.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 84: Find the house was [...] [e]asy as falling off a log.
1964		N.B. Harvey Any Old Dollars, Mister? 139: ‘Easy as falling off a log,’ I said, and snapped my fingers.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 112: It was as simple as falling off a log.
1974		(con. 1930s) I. Agnew Loner 86: Reckoned it was as easy as falling off a log.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 94: Getting him to tell a few lies for the defence as well as the prosecution is like falling off a log.