Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to die; thus going off n., death.

1701		Cibber Love Makes a Man V i: I’ll provide for thy going off, however; let me see! you’ll only have Occasion for a Nosegay, a Pair of white Gloves, and a Coffin.
1738		Account of Uncommon Behaviour of Mr Gill Smith 5 Apr. 5: When he came to the fatal Tree, he was so far from being affected with his unhappy State, that he was observed sometimes to smile, and went off with denying the Fact to his last Breath.
1754		G. Stevens ‘A Cant Song’ Muses Delight 177: I can but shake trotters at fam’d Bilby’s ball, / And go off like a bowman that’s quiddish.
1804		Sporting Mag. May XXIV 160/2: ‘I thought [...] you had told me that poor S—’s fever was gone off?’ – ‘Oh yes [...] but I forgot to mention that he was gone off along with it.’.
1825		W. Cobbett Big O and Sir Glory I i: I shall never forget [...] how a turned up his poor little ‘black neb,’ [...] and went off like any lamb.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford III 247: Mother Lob vas a taking a drop to comfort her vhen Judy vent off.
c.1850		F.M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 27: O, Mr. Crane! I thought I should go off last night when I see that old critter squeeze up and hook onto you.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor II 66/1: My poor father went off rather sudden.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple I 248: She might go off any minnit, before you could say knife.
1891		‘’Arry on Wheels’ Punch 7 May 217/1: Went off like candle-snuff, Charlie, while stoopin’ to lace up ’is boot.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 81: I got a weak ’eart, ’n’ the doctor sez I’m li’ble t’go off any moment if I’m waked up unexpected.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 274: ‘You’re head of the family now, James.’ ‘Poor daddy . . . to go off like that.’.
1929		E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 232: The hoss went rite off the next morning.

2. to have an orgasm.

1748–49		Cleland Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 165: Louisa [...] kept him company, going off, in consent, with the old symptoms; a delicious delirium, a tremulous convulsive shudder, and the critical dying oh!
1831		Satirist (London) 30 Oct. 237/3: fashionable chit-chat. ‘I shall set my cap at him,’ said one of the accomplished and beautiful daughters of Lord Ravensworth to Tom Duncombe [...] ‘If you do,’ said Tom, ‘pray let it be your percussion cap, for then you will be sure to go off’ .
1873–6		Romance of Lust 66: I went off and spent with a scream.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 12 Oct. 1/1: Powder does not benefit girls much; they don’t go off any quicker.
1893		‘Bob Sterling’ Town-Bull 16: ‘Oh! it is heavenly — quick — I am coming [...] I am going off!’.
1902		D. St John Memoirs of Madge Buford 25: Cock and hand moving in unison, we both went off together in delightful ecstacy.
1919		Transcript Dunn Inq. in L.R. Murphy Perverts by Official Order (1989) 33: ‘I went off,’ reported Zipf, ‘and Kent also.’.
1927		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana I 28: Three old maids went off on a tramp in the woods. The tramp died.
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 75: Whenever I felt in danger of going off I would stop moving and think.
1941		(con. 1900s) in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 763: Promenade all, she’s a dancing for her dinner, / Went off twice before I got it in her.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 114: You know how it is when you start to come off the stuff [...] You go off right in your pants.
1961		R. Gover One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 36: Baby way you go off, you musta been savin that one for a mothahlumpin lifetime.
1970		San Diego Sailor 15: I was so hot I could have gone off in my pants.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 67: Sophia was going off like a box full of rusty detonators.
1988		N. Eastwood Gardener Got Her n.p.: She rubbed the juice up and down his blue-veined prick. ‘Easy!’ he growled. ‘That thing’s about to go off!’.
1993		Kennedy & Davies Boots of Leather (2014) 205: ‘When they [i.e. lovers] go off, when it’s there, I am just so enthralled’.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] Mr Wobbly was screaming in his ear and he had a horn that hard you could have cracked walnuts on it; and Les had to go off.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 101: Press the right buttons and that big hoor would go off like an alarm clock.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 185: A thought ee was gunner go off thir and fuckin then!
2008		R. Price Lush Life 363: He had never [been] so slow to come in his life, making her go off over and over .

3. of a woman, to get married.

1749		Fielding Tom Jones (1959) 483: Her reputation might have been otherwise safe, and the affair might have remained a profound secret; and the girl might have gone off never the worse.
1834		Dickens ‘Horatio Sparkins’ in Slater Dickens’ Journalism I (1994) 345: Miss Malderton was as well known as the lion on the top of Northumberland House, and had an equal chance of going off.

4. to happen, to take place, esp. of a fight, a riot.

1839		F.J. Grund Aristocracy in America I vi 238: [S]ome of the government officers [...] gave parties, at which there was a profusion of iced champaign and chicken-salad; and the thing went off well enough .
1840		Comic Almanack Feb. 213: The feed, as I say, went off very well.
1866		E. Gaskell Wives and Daughters 234: The wedding went off much as such affairs do.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 6/3: The Austral Salon shivoo went off amid a great flourish of trumpets at Melbourne Hibernian Hall, in the presence of Governor Hopetoun and all Toorak sassiety.
1900		Sporting Times 9 June 1/4: Why not say it went off without a hitch?
1922		Joyce Ulysses 102: Everything went off A 1, he said. What? [Ibid.] 308: – How did that Canada swindle case go off? says Joe. – Remanded, says J. J.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 75: The second number goes off like a top.
1972		J. McNeill Old Familiar Juice (1973) 82: ‘We used to barrack the monkey every time it went off’.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 8: How did the shivoo go off?
1958		F. Norman in Sun. Graphic 20 July in Norman’s London (1969) 17: Every now and then a bit of bother goes off in Soho.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 41: I had been touting this thing for months, and here it was ready to ‘go off’, and what hope had I of being in at the kill?
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 184: Go off all right?
1977		(con. 1969) M. Herr Dispatches 49: You couldn’t find two people who agreed about when it began, how could you say when it began going off?
1989		N. George in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) [title] Goin’ Off in Cali.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 251: If the place had really gone off we were in for some serious shit.
1998		M. Newall ‘Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knyght’ in Indep. Weekend Rev. 26 Dec. 1: Everybody thinkking / Somethynge myghte go off.
2007		W. Ellis Crooked Little Vein 257: Just stick to the sidelines [...] and the fuck out of Dodge when it all goes off.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 15: There’s mass panic among the strikers, as it aw goes oaf.
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 29: If her fam finds out it’s gonna go off big time.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] VITAL AUSSIE VERNACULAR Getting Physical: Going off like a bag of cats.

5. to be disposed of, whether of people or objects.

1833		S. Smith Major Downing (1834) 102: The bean poles turned middling well, though they don’t go off so glib as they did last year.
1865		H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 56: The locks [i.e. of hair] went off like smoke at half-a-crown apiece.
1872		C.L. Brace Dangerous Classes of NY 165: On ‘Dutch Hill’ one can hardly enter a shanty where there is a sober family. The women all drink; the men work, and then carouse. The hard earnings go off in alcohol.

6. (also go off it, go off on a packet, go off pop) to lose emotional control, whether pleasurably or in anger.

1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 90: Mrs Sowerberry sunk into a chair, and burst into tears. ‘Bless her, she’s going off!’ said Charlotte.
1883		J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. 169: ‘Blowed if I liked leaving him, he looked so much like going off.’ ‘Going off!’ [...] ‘To all to bits,’ returned the greengrocer.
1890		Kipling ‘The God from the Machine’ in Soldiers Three (1907) 13: She screamed an’ I thought she was goin’ off.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 73: Miss Bentley, the sedate piece-worker, who gave marked indications of going off.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Feb. 4/8: ’E went off pop on her like ’ell. Told ’er if she didn’t ante up some brass, ’e’d take it out of ’er ’ide.
1907		Truth (Perth) 19 Oct. 4/5: Her clothes do not seem to make swains go off pop. / Nor their blood to congeal, or to curdle - / Two sandals below and one garment on top / That is held in its place by a girdle .
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Oct. 12/3: ‘Melb.’ goes off like a motor-cycle or a string of Chinese crackers about matters of bedroom and domestic interest.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 156: The Fritz officer goes off on a packet about what Longun did.
1923–4		F. Anthony ‘Gus Buys a Bull’ in Me And Gus (1977) 43: The way he went off about it was a fair scorcher.
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 84: Dad can’t stand cruelty. You should hear him go off if he catches anybody ill-using an animal.
1940		F. Sargeson ‘A Pair of Socks’ in A Man And His Wife (1944) 65: Every chance he got he’d pick on me and go off pop.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 58: Don’t go off so alarming.
1973		K. Burkhart Women in Prison 446: Go off To get angry, scream or shout.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 22: The second time Price got to see Norton go off was late on a fairly busy Saturday night.
1987		‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 16: Mary Ellen went off like a smoke alarm in a Lucky Strike factory.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 215: ‘He went right off ,’ Vautin said. ‘It was, “You blokes are kidding! That was the worst performance I have ever seen.”’.
1998		K. Anderson Night Dogs 153: ‘We took off the cuffs and told him we’d be right back…’ ‘And he went off on us’.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 311: Then I witness her going off again. Its like a second orgasm, but this time the hoor freaks on outrage rather than sex.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 167: ‘If the boy Crip think that the boy Blood more tougher than the girl, he might go off on the girl just to hurt the other gang member’.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 224: You’d better come downstairs and have a word with Urban. He’s going off it a bit.
2006		J. Ridley What Fire Cannot Burn 91: She knew he was just going off.
2012		D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 121: Takes about six of us to restrain him when he goes off it.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] My old man woke me up [...] He was going off like a bag of cats.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] If I get a gig, I’m gonna go off like a cut snake.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 403: I went to the Bulova building [DOC HQ] and went off. I told them, I’ll expose every one of you that I know something about.

7. (society) to not take place, to fail to happen.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 1886 court report in Ware (1909) 143/1: ‘What do you mean by an engagement going off?’ ‘When a person says he will call and does not, I cut it out.’.

8. to pass out, to go to sleep.

1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 133: The hapless lady in the violence of her grief and fear, sunk into a heavy swoon [...] ‘Poor creature, she has gone clean off.’.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 234: She jes’ said ‘Oh, mother!’ ’n’ went off like er little child.
1936		W. Holtby South Riding (1988) 146: Give Shep a thump for me, will you? [...] he’s gone off, sweet as a baby.
1960		L. Davidson Night of Wenceslas 211: [I] flaked out on the divan and went off almost immediately.

9. (Aus.) to suffer a police raid, usu. because a hotel or public house is breaking local drinking laws.

1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 99: He went off a few weeks ago and it cost him twenty quid. [Ibid.] 170: Our chop is two bob in the pound, but we pay all fines if we go off.

10. (US black) to do something exceptionally well.

1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 7: I saw him go off in this Interhigh match.
2017		Young M.A. ‘OOOUUU’ 🎵 This year I’m really going off.

11. (US) to talk about.

2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 79: Before I’m even done talkin’ he starts going off about Kahlil Gibran or some kinda shit.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 315: This jerk-off stoolie goes off about you two guys.

12. (US campus) to become foolish or silly.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U.

13. (US black/campus) to act intensely.

1979		Treacherous Three ‘New Rap Language’ 🎵 Come on, Moe Dee, go off, go off.
1989		P. Munro Sl. U.
1990		W.D. Myers Mouse Rap 33: [T]he little crowd [...] is all gathered around our court. This sets Omega off. I mean the dude goes off. The sweat’s popping off my man and he’s [...] hacking dudes to death.
1999		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 5: go off – feel enthusiastic or animated by something: ‘She was really going off at the concert’.
2011		Travis Barker ‘Can A Drummer Get Some?’ 🎵 But I’m about to go off, cause that is all I know of.

14. (US campus) to move from topic to topic while talking.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U.

15. (N.Z. gay) of a public lavatory, to host active gay soliciting .

2010

W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 62: This toilet [i.e. one that is ‘working’] is said to be active, going-off or jumping.