Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entry.

see separate entries.

see blow off steam under steam n.

(US black) to have sexual intercourse.

1989

(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 138: A number of terms relate to sexual behavior, including: get off the bra (or jock) strap.

(US) to move from a stationary position, esp. of a dancer; to stop idling, to start; also in fig. use, to stop acting/talking in a given manner.

1925		Calif. Engineer 3-4 103/1: get off the dime! Mental indolence is a spectre that haunts every college campus.
1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 15: Sometimes a [...] [dancing] couple [...] would scarcely move from one spot. Then the floor manager would cry, Git off dat dime!
1932		P.G. Cressey Taxi-Dance Hall 13: ‘Get off that dime,’ good-naturedly shouts a taxi-dancer to a girl chum and her over-zealous patron.
a.1948		(con. early 1930s) C. McKay Harlem Glory (1990) 52: Batty chuckled: ‘Now get off that dime. You know a husband [...] don’t phase no cullud woman.’.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 115: There was only one way to get off the dime. That was to pull a score.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1999		W. Mosley Walkin’ the Dog 193: A lotta men spend a whole lotta time tryin’ to get what they want from you. But how many’a them gonna get off the dime and do for you?

(orig. US) to scold someone for interfering.

1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 164: He was a Gentleman, and that no Cheap Skate in a Plug Hat could tell him where to Get Off.
1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. vii: I told them where to get off, and don’t you forget it.
1912		A.G. Field Watch Yourself Go By 410: I’ll durn soon tell you whar to head in.
1915		Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ in Taking the Count 22: I want to show these knockers where they get off.
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘May Day’ in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald V (1963) 146: Tell her where she can go.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 281: He’ll show these damn agitators [...] he’ll show ’em where they get off!
1921		Dos Passos Three Soldiers 61: That’s it, Bill, tell him where to get off.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 79: I jumped him [...] I told him just exactly where he got off.
1923		N. Anderson Hobo 78: One youth says that his father tried to tell him ‘where to head in at,’ and he ‘wouldn’t stand for it’.
1929		T. Wolfe Look Homeward, Angel (1930) 257: He’s got a couple of deals coming off that’ll show the pikers in this town where to get off.
1930		‘Leslie Charteris’ Enter the Saint 12: Tommy was like that — stubborn. He told the Snake exactly where he could go.
1931		Ade Old-Time Saloon 145: No matter how much he wanted to mop up, that was his own affair and nobody ought to tell a good fellow where to get off.
1937		P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 119: I see more stars than ever told a movie director where he got off.
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 191: By God! he would go back and tell that girl where she got off. It would do her good.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 474: You got to tell ’em where to get off.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 57: I want to tell Wright, the manager, where he gets off!
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 60: I’m not telling you where to get off.
1956		G. Green Last Angry Man 17: Why doesn’t someone tell ’em where to head in? [HDAS].
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘The Fishing-Boat Picture’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 82: I got the sack for telling the forewoman where to get off.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 194: He tells me to get over the side. I tell ’im where to go.
1964		Larner & Tefferteller Addict in the Street (1966) 216: He made the wrong kind of passes not only at my wife, but at my mother. And I told him where to get off.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 120: He knew how to tell the Judge where he got off!
1976		Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 21: Whenever Jack tried to tell us to do something, we’d tell him where to go.
1981		W. Russell Educating Rita II iii: You’d tell them, wouldn’t you? You’d tell them where to get off.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 47: Am about tuh say somethin to thuh fuckers, tell em whir tuh fuckin go like.
2019		A. Parks February’s Son 155: ‘Oh aye, and what did you say?’ asked Murray. ‘I told her where to go’.

a phr. implying criticism of another’s action.

1922		Wodehouse Clicking of Cuthbert 115: Where did Napoleon get off, swanking round as if he amounted to something?
1932		V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 28: Where the hell [...] does this guy So-and-So get off at, telling us how much time we have to do?
1944		A. Kapelner Lonely Boy Blues (1965) 92: Where do you get off, you fat bum!
1953		J. Thompson Alcoholics (1993) 38: Where did that bird get off at, treating him like some Spring Street bum?
1977		C. McFadden Serial 96: I don’t know where you get off with the beige.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 27: So you’re home, Roger. Where the hell do you get off? Listen to me you sonofabitch!
1997		‘Q’ Deadmeat 101: Where di fuck yu get arf bein so fuckin polite?
2003		Mad mag. Nov. 28: Where does the post office get off charging you extra to confirm that your mail was actually delivered?
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] Anyway, where do you get off? I don’t answer to you. Worry about your own fucking pisspot station.

see separate entries.

(US) an excl. of dismissal.

1893		S. Crane Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (2001) 22: ‘Oh, gee,’ I says, ‘Go teh hell an’ git off deh eart’.’.
1896		Advocate (Tokea, KS) 1 July 11/3: No trespass here; get off the earth!
1903		Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 12 July 3/6: ‘Get off the earth,’ says the Prime Minister [...] And they must get.

(N.Z.) an excl. of dismissal, contempt.

1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 49/1: get off the grass! scornful reaction.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 85: get off the grass! Scornful rejection. [...] If you happen to be in the way, there is the addition and let my mother/wife/lady friend see the races. Mid C20.