Green’s Dictionary of Slang

get off v.2

1. vi. to tease, to trick.

[US]Broadway Belle (NY) 6 Nov. n.p.: He left wonderfully relieved in mind. Somebody had merely been ‘getting him off’.

2. to gain satisfaction.

[US]B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 134: If all people let their faces go unimproved [...] where will the barbers get off?

3. (orig. US) to achieve orgasm.

[US]‘The Bicycle’ in Bawdy N.Y. State MS. n.p.: And when the ride comes to an end, / They both get off together.
Coot Grant ‘Get Off with Me’ 🎵 Every night about half past twelve, you can hear all the pretty girls yell: / Get off with me, honey, bend your knee! Don’t go too strong cos you can’t last long.
[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 171: Till a Spanish grandee / Got her off with his knee.
[US]Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
[US]C. McFadden Serial 89: Heavy-duty erotic art. Bill practically got off on the invitation.
[US]P. Califia Macho Sluts 46: How do you get off? Do you put your fingers on your clit?
[US]Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 get off ejaculate. ‘John finally got off when Mary shoved a dildo up his ass.’.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 29 Oct. 12: Chambers can even ‘get off’ just thinking about her performances.
[US]‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 14: Bunny screwed selfishly, using my cock to get herself off.
[US]S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 83: ‘Wait, what time you get off?’ ‘About fifteen minutes after you roll off me and go to sleep’.

4. (US) to enjoy, to be stimulated by.

[US]T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 12 Mar. [synd. cartoon] And say, where does he get off with a wrist watch.
[US]Wesley Wilson & Coot Grant ‘Get Off With Me’ 🎵 I know a man by the name of Jack Frost, / Originated the dance they call ‘Gettin’ Off.’ / [...] / You can hear all the pretty gals yell / Get off with me, / Honey, bend your knee!
[US]J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 175: Where the hell did I get off playing around with a kike broad, anyway.
[US]Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 483: get off : To show off, strut your stuff, go over big. When she rose to sing, she really got off.
[US]M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 54: Agnes got off talking about girls.
[UK]C. Wood ‘Prisoner and Escort’ in Cockade (1965) Act I: Medals out also – that’s what got me off.
[US]R. Price Blood Brothers 167: He especially got off on his aunts and uncles marveling at his good looks.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Spring 4: get off – to unwind and let go; to do something with enthusiasm.
[UK]N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 82: Nood gets straigh’ off on it [i.e. music].
[US]W. Ellis Crooked Little Vein 221: Not everyone gets off on a softcore murder mystery.
[US]C. Stella Rough Riders 14: I get off when she lies to me [...] If you want to know the truth, it’s what turns me on.

5. (US black) to achieve one’s object.

[US]Willy Baker ‘Sweet Patunia Blues’ in Oliver Screening the Blues (1968) 221: I got a gal she’s got a Rolls-Royce, / She didn’t get off by usin’ her voice.
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 227: He really gets off, that is, so capable of expressing himself fully that he gets the load of oppression off, the load that weighs down poor broken people [...] and can’t do anything about it.
[US]‘Lord Buckley’ Hiparama of the Classics 16: WHAMMMMMI!! Everybody got off! Period!
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Spring 3: get off – perform an activity or task well.

6. (US) to improvise or play music skilfully; to perform a solo.

[US]W. Winchell On Broadway 11 Nov. [synd. col.] Add Slanguage [...] Get off means ‘start to ride’.
[US]H. Brook Webb ‘The Sl. of Jazz’ in AS XII:3 181: get off. After a change, when one musician rises from his seat and plays a solo chorus with accompaniment by a part of or all the rest of the orchestra, he is said to ‘get off’ or ‘take off’.
[US]F.L. Allen ‘Benny Goodman and Bach’ in Brookhouser These Were Our Years (1959) 465: These boys and girls were devotees of swing, ready to dance in the aisles of the theatre amid shouts of ‘Get off, Benny! Swing it!’.
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 74: While you’re playing, really getting off, your own accompaniment keeps flashing through your head.
[US]G. Tate Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 36: Once in a while he’d get off and they’d say, wow, he is a baaad motherfucker.

7. to please or stimulate someone else.

[US]S.J. Perelman letter 22 Feb. in Crowther Don’t Tread on Me (1987) 89: Where we really got off nicely, though, was in our mutual respect and admiration for con men.
[UK]J. Mowry Six Out Seven (1994) 248: Two [beers] rated for good report cards or anything else that got most moms off.
[US]B. Coleman Rakim Told Me 138: ‘“Jimbrowski” was cool and it got everybody off, but “Because” was the one that really rocked in the clubs’.

8. to bring one’s partner to orgasm.

[US]San Diego Sailor 79: I was so hot for him that it only took a few plunges to get me off.
[US]O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 91: Just to make a long story short . . . we got off into it [...] it was heavy, heavy drippin’ drama.
[US]N. Eastwood Gardener Got Her n.p.: We won’t get serious, okay? Just get each other off this way.
[US]‘Bill E. Goodhead’ Nubile Treat 🌐 He was proud of the way he’d managed to get her off so well the first time, and he was determined to show her he was a two-shot guy.
[US]G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 209: Her plan was to get the old man off quick.

9. to shoot, to fire a gun.

[US]E. Torres Carlito’s Way 31: I killed him standing up. His partner, Nelson, took two in the chest—he had something on him but he never got off.

10. (UK und.) vtr. to promote or sell fraudulently, to pass off.

[US]E. Torres Carlito’s Way 54: [A] big carton of Central Park grass which he got off as Panama pot which he had sprinkled on the top.

11. of a prostitute, to find a client.

[UK] in D. Seabrook Jack of Jumps (2007) 211: Business is rotten. I wish I could get off.

In phrases

get off with (v.)

1. to strike up a relationship with a potential sexual partner (short of actual seduction).

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Apr. 3/4: ‘You girls call your sweethearts ‘darlings,’ and you men call yours ‘daises,’ [sic] and you girls are afraid to come up here for fear some other girls will get off with your ‘darlings,’ and you men for fear some other men will get away with your ‘daisies’ .
[[UK] in Punch 26 Nov. 243: Of course all my friends thought Lord Arthur and I had quarrelled, and I was ‘off’ with someone else!].
[UK]W.L. George Making of an Englishman III 300: She had come into the restaurant on the chance of ‘getting off’ with ‘one of the boys’.
[Aus]C.J. Dennis ‘The Dance’ in Rose of Spadgers 138: An’ lets young Wally Free git off with Rose.
[US]R. McAlmon Distinguished Air (1963) 10: It’s a shame for me to make an effort to get off with anybody here.
[UK](con. 1914–18) Brophy & Partridge Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier.
[UK]J. Franklyn This Gutter Life 182: How the devil did these prostitute girls manage to get off?
in D. Sheridan (ed.) Wartime Women 89: ‘It always annoys Jenny when boys of about 16 try and “get off” with her.
[UK]R.L. Finn Time Remembered (1985) 155: I went to chat with friends, to try and ‘get off’ (the then current phrase) with a girl.
[UK]Guardian Rev. 28 Jan. 11: I saw this cockney bloke get off with a girl at the pool.
[UK]J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 604: Girls got off with girls for want of men.

2. to seduce, and poss. have sexual intercourse with.

[UK]J. Harvey French Foreign Legion in Syria (1995) 206: One evening Verlozzi returned looking even more pleased with himself than usual, and on being asked the cause of it announced that he had ‘got off’ with a colonel’s wife .
[UK]T. Croft Cloven Hoof 169: Although such girls may go out with the deliberate intention of ‘getting off’ with men, it does not mean that they can be called [...] prostitutes.
[Aus]D. Stivens Courtship of Uncle Henry 73: ‘Wonder he doesn’t try getting off with one of them,’ I says. ‘You hear things about those Darling Point tarts.’.
[Aus]K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 195: Braid’s already got off with my girl.
[UK]R. Hauser Homosexual Society 32: [We] had a divorce. She wanted to get off with somebody else and was in a hurry.
[UK]B. Reckord Skyvers I ii: You got off wiv ’Elen?
[UK]A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 18: I wanted to get off with Claudine.
[Ire]R. Doyle Commitments 65: We all like him, said Outspan. – But we’re not queuein’ up to get off with him.
[Scot]I. Welsh Trainspotting 31: As long as there’s an opportunity tae get off wi a woman and her purse, and that’s it, that is it.
[UK]K. Sampson Awaydays 157: I’d love to get off with Natasha.
[UK]N. Griffiths Grits 42: An now ere she is tellin me that she got off with Malcolm.
[UK]G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 276: We were just hangin out, innit. It in’t as if we’d got off or nothin.

3. (UK teen) to indulge in a session of French kissing.

[Ire]Irish Times 13 Feb. 🌐 The etiquette, apparently, is strict: no one attempts to ‘get off’ at a disco unless permission has been granted [...] If someone fancies ‘getting off’ with someone, their friends approach the object of desire. If he or she is agreeable, the pair proceed to the disco floor and French kiss each other .
[Ire]J. O’Connor Salesman 172: I was only gettin’ off with him, Dad. Actually I think he’s a bit of a wuss.
[UK]R. Milward Apples (2023) 81: [W]e spotted them getting off [...] it was payback for the paint — a kiss from Debbie.