Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. tired, exhausted, ill; ‘out of sorts’ in general.

1869		‘Oxford Sl.’ in Macmillan’s Mag. XXI 71/1: No more cruel fate can happen to an undergraduate than to be ‘out of it’ [...] A man who is unwell, unhappy, in debt, or in any other respect uncomfortable, considers himself [...] ‘out of it’ .
1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 37: Firesteen glanced at the prisoner. ‘Dead to the world.’ ‘Sure. Figures he’s got it made. He’s out of it.’.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 166: Out of it Very tired.
1977		(con. 1960s) Nicholson & Smith Spend, Spend, Spend (1978) 146: I was really completely out of it, through losing Keith.
1996		S. Frank Get Shorty [film script] The guy’s so out of it he doesn’t even know it’s gone.
2000		M. Collins Keepers of Truth 97: She was out of it in her last months.

2. (also out of here) experiencing the effects of a drug or alcohol; the implication is of being unable to function adequately.

1913		H. Lawson ‘His Unconquerable Soul’ in Roderick (1972) 811: He was miserably unhappy when he wasn’t very drunk and should have been [...] glad of any chance to ‘get out of it’.
1960		N. Hilliard Maori Girl 124: Boy, you were sure out of it. I thought at the time, ‘By crikey, I bet she’s crook tomorrow’.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 53: They were both junkies, nodding, fading. They were both out of it, gone.
1978		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 3: out of here [...] crazy, drunk, high.
1982		Eble Campus Sl. Spring 8: out of here – inebriated.
1985		Tracks (Aus.) Feb. 13: An out of it committee member pathetically tried to keep the crowd quiet for a moment but each ‘shut up you fucken arseholes’ he screamed into the microphone was met with an even louder cheer from the crowd [Moore 1993].
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 41: ‘[A]ll they do is get out of it and sit up on the roof playing didgeridoos’.
1999		Guardian G2 12 July 6: ‘I lose the plot when I drink,’ she says. ‘I get completely out of it.’.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 18: A look at Mairead, an Mags, an Malcolm out uv it on thuh floor.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 150: out of it Drunk or drugged to the point of stupefaction. ANZ.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] When she got out of it she liked to rave on about [...] starting her own business.
2010		K. Richards Life 190: He didn’t give a shit. ‘I was out of it’ [Ibid.] 247: Gram certainly liked to get out of it - which made two of us.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] ‘Did Harry supply drugs?’ ‘I don’t know for sure, but the people from the hostel are always out of it’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 380: [S]he doesn’t have the shoplifting skills anymore down to being out of it and clumsy.

3. (US campus) elated.

1959

L.P. Boone ‘Gator Sl.’ AS XXXIV:2 155: One who is extremely happy is on cloud 88 or out of it.

4. (also out of here, outta there) crazy, insane, in a daze.

1957		Wash. Post 29 Sept. F1/1–2: Of course, ‘lunching’ is the opposite of O.T.L. (out to lunch) which plainly tells you that someone is out-of-it, not-in-the-groove, or not-with-it.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 268: I knew he was completely out of it.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 101: He’s out of it [...] I think the defendant should be remanded for psychiatric examination.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 126: There are other vernacular expressions that characterize someone who can be (or has been) got to – out of it, raggedy.
1981		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 5: out of here – out of control of one’s faculties.
1986		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 4: outta there! – a retort to silly or harmful behavior: You did it this time – you’re outta there.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 70: Too much time thinking and you’re out of it. Jacket job.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 111: She was off her fuckin tree. Tellin yeh; right fuckin out of it.