Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. milit.) irritated, annoyed; thus brown off v., to annoy, to irritate.

1916		Sheffield Wkly Teleg. 11 Mar. 1/1: ‘Browned Off!’ The Tommies in France are having friendly arguments as to their service, and, as one can guess, the Kitchener’s man has to bob down, or, as the term goes, he is ‘browned off’.
1929		letter in Civil & Military Gaz. (Lahore) 16 Oct. 3/5: I think that something should be done to quell the discontent that is arising out of this. browned off. Jullundur.
1931		Land (Sydney) 28 Aug. 10/1: Among the twenty new members who have flown into the Hive this week was-one who had winged his way from far-off India. I was quite excited about it. Browned-off, he calls himself, and he is a private in the 1st Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry, stationed at Murree Hills, India.
1935		Portsmouth Eve. Teleg. 10 Dec. 3/4: BROWNED OFF Sir, —lt appears hard luck on Browned Off in that, in his determination to obtain his full pennyworth of your valued paper, he is compelled to peruse such correspondence as finds his disfavour.
1943		P. Larkin letter 2 Sept. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 67: I am a trifle browned myself at the moment.
1944		(ref. to 1932) AS XIX 3: A letter of 30 August 1940 from Mrs. Jean Green in Hunsur, Mysore, India (n.16): To brown off or to be browned off was first heard by me in Army circles at Aldershot in 1932, and when I came out to India later in the year it was also used in Bangalore. Since then I have used it often, but gave it up a year or two ago, thinking it was overdone and dated.
1944		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 27 May 14/3: Two other importations, ‘browned-off’ (fed up) and ‘chi’ (tea) have been adopted [by Aus. troops].
1948		N. Mailer letter 7 Feb. in Selected Letters (2014) 68: Words liked [sic] browned-off, fouled-up, mother-loving, f— , spit for shit are the most counterfeit of currencies.
1958		A. Buckeridge Jennings’ Little Hut 45: If you had to live in a titchy little tank [...] you’d get a bit browned-off.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 130: It browns me off the way people are always offering a chap cigarettes.
1969		C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 85: By the time the sergeant got to the tenants in the last room he was well browned off.
1979		B. Gutcheon New Girls (1982) 303: Ann’s class was quite browned off [...] to miss the chance of seeing television.
1986		Sun. Times 12 Oct. 52: It’s all right at first, then it browns you off, makes you miserable.
1990		Dennis the Menace Annual 20: I thought he’d soon get browned off.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 144: Some say he was more than browned off when Harold Badger [...] was appointed Ajax’s regular pilot.
2000		Observer 5 Mar. 32: Browned off by the Windsors.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 71: Zanuck and his high-command corps were browned off.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 128: [H]e was browned off by his twittish scoutmaster tendency.