out of sight, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

out of sight adj.

also outasight, outasite

[note Dalzell (1996): ‘Like far out out-of-sight can point to serious literary roots. As Richard H. Peck of the University of Virginia noted in AS (1966, pages 78–79), out-of-sight was Bowery slang for astonishingly excellent in the 1890s, and was used by Stephen Crane at least four times in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893). Visiting a museum, our heroine utters, “Dis is outa sight.” She could have been speaking 70 years later. Lester V. Berrey and Melvin Van den Bark identified out-of-sight as a slang synonym for five categories – beyond comparison, very superior, excessive, completely, and expensive – in the American Thesaurus of Slang (1942), but I found little other evidence of the term’s use until the early 1960s’]

1. (US) unattainable.

1919		Chillicothe (MO) Constitution 28 Aug. 2/1: Most all commodities and necessities are, to use a little slang, ‘out of sight.’ The profiteers are getting the best of it.
1928		R. Carr Rampant Age 155: She’s clear outa sight as a date, Paul – ‘hands off’ stuff, chaperones maybe even corsets!
1951		R. Starnes Grant’s Tomb 19: ‘Everything’s out of sight these days.’ [sic] I murmured.

2. (orig. US, also outen sight) excellent, first rate, exceptional; thus ext. as clean out of sight.

1891		C.H. Hoyt A Trip to Chinatown Act II: will.: It’s out of sight, isn’t it? rash & norm.: Great!
1893		S. Crane Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (2001) 21: Say, Mag, I’m stuck on yer shape. It’s outa sight.
1902		P.L. Dunbar Jest Of Fate (1903) 100: He’s out o’ sight, I tell you.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘A Night in New Arabia’ in Strictly Business (1915) 220: ‘That’s out o’ sight, Kid,’ said he.
1925		Odum & Johnson Negro and His Songs (1964) 220: I was boun’ down to Louisville, / Got stuck on Louisville girl. / You bet yo’ life she’s out o’ sight, / She wore the Louisville curl.
1930		G. Milburn ‘The Swede from North Dakota’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 139: I buy me a suit, I buy me a bottle, / Dress me up way out of sight.
1939		Lillie Mae Kirkham ‘He’s Just My Size’ 🎵 The kind of bread he serves me, I swear is out of sight.
1959		J. Blake letter 18 Mar. in Joint (1972) 132: He’s just out-of-sight schizo.
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 180: Man, that Jack was outta sight.
1975		D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 195: They got seafood up there that’s outta sight.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 105: They put on a feed that was out of sight.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 18: Everybody told him the food was outasite.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 91: Lemme tell you ’bout dis party [...] Some fine young ladies, good weed. Outasight party.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 164: Jerry Lee Lewis was fantastic and Chuck Berry was out of sight.
1993		M. Myers et al. Wayne’s World II [film script] Bjergen: he is so ‘out of sight’ to me.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 125: Yo, blood, I got some cess from Jamaica that’s outta sight!

3. (US) extraordinary, esp. bad, insane or deranged.

1962		(con. 1950s) H. Simmons Man Walking On Eggshells 202: Yeh, [...] those people are out of sight.
1965		H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 32: I mean it, man, he’s outta sight. He carries a blade and some heat.
1970		New Yorker 29 Aug. 51: The new film surrealists (the outasite ones).
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 40: That’s outasight – it really is an x-ray!
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 378: She was ‘kooky,’ ‘wiggy,’ and ‘out of sight’.