Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to associate with, to join forces with.

1915		E. Genet letter 28 Feb. in Channing War Letters of Edmond Genet 52: I want to get with Dave and we are hoping it can be arranged this week [...] it will be much nicer if we can all hang together.
1965		H. Williamson Hustler 32: Now there was some guys who was just like me, and we didn’t care what the others did. I would get with those guys when I was around there.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 50: ‘So you got with Dumas.’ ‘Got with Dumas. Got paid well. Got an education.’.
2002		R.G. Barrett Mystery Bay Blues 26: When are you going to piss Warren off and get with me?

2. (orig. US black) to understand, to join in, to accept the party line.

1937		Cab Calloway ‘My Gal Mezzanine’ 🎵 Get with me and give me your attention, / I’ve found affection built to my dimension.
1944		Paul Martelpeckl Orchestra [song title] Git Wid It.
1956		Charlie Feathers ‘Get With It’ 🎵 We gotta get with it / ’Fore the night is gone.
1962		C. Clausen I Love You Honey, But the Season’s Over 135: Hey! Ya wanna do the matinée lookin’ backwards? Show’s startin’. Get with it!
1972		(con. 1950s) Jacobs & Casey Grease I iv: If you think you’re gonna be hangin’ around with the Pink Ladies – you gotta get with it!
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 240: get with 1. Get in step with.
1994		M. Ribowsky Don’t Look Back 238: [T]he big leagues had in no way responded to the inevitable by finally getting with the Branch Rickey modus operandi.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 216: Gus has a temper, that’s a fact. My cousin Booker needs to get with that.
2020		Woods & Soderburg I Got a Monster 42: A war on guns, like the war on drugs—Jenkins could get with that.

3. (US black/campus) as get with it, to enjoy oneself.

1947		M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl. n.p.: git wit it ... Enjoy yourself.
1952		W. Burroughs letter 22 April in Harris (1993) 121: Get with those technicolor peyote kicks Daddy O.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 347: ‘Between five and six is get-with-it time. The men have just finished mugging the drunks, the giel s are just coming in, and everybody’s got money and had their fix’.

4. (US teen/campus) to have sexual intercourse.

1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 85: ‘For old times? Even if I got a date with somebody else tonight?’ ‘Even anything. Come on. Let’s get with it.’.
1978		R. Charles Brother Ray 158: If a chick wants to get with me, and if I want to get with her, we’ll work it out.
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.
1998		Source Oct. 162: The guy who might let a girl he want to get with drive his Lexus.
2000		Indep. Rev. 27 Mar. 14: I wanna get with you ... and your sister.
2012		W.D. Myers All the Right Stuff 158: Yo, Paul, are you going to try to—you know—get with her?’ ‘No, I’m supposed to be mentoring her,’ I said. ‘Not getting into her pants’.