Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (mainly Aus.) agreeing to participate, taking a share.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 246: in it: to let another partake of any benefit or acquisition you have acquired by robbery or otherwise, is called putting him in it: a family-man who is accidentally witness to a robbery, &c., effected by one or more others, will say to the latter, Mind, I’m in it: which is generally acceded to, being the established custom; but there seems more of courtesy than right in this practice.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 79: [I] saw a fellow at this game [i.e. posing as a law officer] in Whitecross Street, and wishing to be in it, I got into a lot of about a dozen old women.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 105: In it — concerned in or making part of a gang, or lot.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 189: The old lady has had ’em these twenty year; and if you were to give ’em five hundred pund, they wouldn’t be in it.
1865		Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1994) 159: The two men [...] would have been jointly and pretty equally ‘in it’.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Feb. 10/2: For ways that are dark, the heathen Chinee is never ‘in it’ by the side of a certain J.P. who ladles out justice in a town situated somewhere between the Cloncurry and the North Pole. [Ibid.] 28 Mar. 7/1: The Baron was literally stripped of all his goods. […] But the clouds have rolled by, and the Baron is once more ‘in it’ right up to his neck. [Ibid.] 27 Jun. 9/3: The Adelaide lawyers are engaging female clerks. There is a lot of fun in this, and the bachelor attorney is ‘right in it.’.
1898		Binstead & Wells A Pink ’un and a Pelican 209: I soon rumbled he was in it [i.e. a confidence trick].
1919		‘Sax Rohmer’ Dope 177: ‘Drugs? A Home office agent? Dan, they think the Force is in it?’ ‘They do!’ rapped Kerry.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 22: We’re all in it, boy [...] Darn fool game. Clear out of it when you gits the chance.
1946		F.J. Hardy ‘The Load of Wood’ in Man From Clinkapella 10: Surely Darky’s scared, but he don’t seem to be. Wish to Hell I hadn’t said I’d be in it. If we’re seen, we’ll go to gaol.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 41: I think I might be in it, that ride to Boomi.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 151: ‘What do you reckon, Nino? Be in it?’ ‘I will be in anything.’.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 71: Something might happen and they wouldn’t be in it.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 139: He was in it up to his neck.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 73: If they had said, ‘No, we don’t want to be in it,’ I would have said ‘all right’.
2000		Deep Dickollective ‘Grammatology’ 🎵 on BourgieBohoPostPomoAfroHomo [album] I write about niggas biting Tigers / But not even liking golf / Sporty Joe Calisthentic now you in it to win it / Sporty Joe Calisthentic and you still a jocksniffer.

2. (Aus.) drunk.

1840

Tasmanian Wkly Dispatch (Hobart, Tas.) 10 Jan. 6/4: A great number of drunkards were complained of [...] A constable met a poor fellow, a little top heavy, and says, ‘Why you are in it, I must take you up’.

3. at the heart of society.

1881		‘’Arry on Fashion’ in Punch 10 Sept. 110/1: I tell you we’ve got to be in it, all there like, or go to the wall.
1894		S. Crane in Stallman (1966) 106: Entire Republican ticket, cit and State? Well, for the love of Mike! Holy smoke, ain’t we in it!

4. conforming to one’s ideas and attitudes, worthy of notice; often as not in it phr.

1877		Sporting Gaz. (London) 5 May 422/2: The Setters [...] were also a mixed lot [...] To our mind there were, in sporting slang, but three ‘in it’.
1895		Riverina Recorder (Moulamein, NSW) 6 Mar. 2/5: ‘Oh ’Arry’ wasn’t in it for language.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 15 Dec. 163: They were more sure than ever there was something in it.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Feb. 14/3: The Australian bullocky isn’t in it for cuss language with the Constantinople Greek.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 188: Come on, be in it, chick!
1958		R.F. Bauerle ‘Miscellany’ in AS XXXIII:1 78: in it, prep. phr. In the supposedly correct or acceptable group.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 142: You ever climbed up a mountain? Pain was never in it.
2002		D. Shaw ‘Dead Beard’ at www.asstr.org 🌐 Me, I couldn’t care less what Dionne thinks because I just love hammering it up a bird’s queen mum but my duchess won’t be in it so this is a real nice rifle range.

5. in trouble.

1883		Punch 28 July 38/1: I was in it, old man, and no kid [F&H].
1898		Kipling ‘In Ambush’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 49: Wasn’t Mr. Prout and Mr. King in — in it too?
1917		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Victor Second’ in Three Elephant Power 114: We were fairly in it and no mistake.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 17: You an’ I, old son, in it up to the fuckin’ neck, we was!
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 324: You surely are in it to your neck.
1959		‘Screwsman’s Lament’ in Encounter n.d. in Norman Norman’s London (1969) 68: Now Kate is well in it, and they’re sure to file a charge, / And what with the darbies on, she’s like a lunatic at large.
1964		P. Terson Night to Make the Angels Weep (1967) II xvi: Now you’re in it, ent you, eh?

6. in contention.

1894		Mirror of Life 27 Jan. 15/1: [headline] [ref. to a champion strong man] sandow not in it.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 3 July 2/5: The fight fell far short of expectations as far as the Yankee was concerned, for he was never in it for a moment.
1914		W.Thaw letter 30 Aug. in ‘The War Letters of Two Yale Undergraduates’in Yale Alumni Wkly 22 Jan. 483: Talk about your college education, it isn’t in it with what a fellow can learn being thrown in here with a bunch of men like this!

7. (Aus.) involved in a corrupt scheme, e.g. a fixed horse race.

1901

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Feb. 1/4: Some old-time ramper who only opens his eyes when he is not ‘in it’.

8. (US) aware, alive.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Apr. 10/3: The Ministers, seeing the newspaper next morning, say ‘Ho, ho!’ and laugh, and the ex-Minister meeting one or other of them during the day, says, ‘Don’t contradict it. I am making a hare of old softgoods. When you read that he has received “the following information from an undoubted source,” or “on the best authority,” or the like, you can guess I’m in it’.
c.1895		‘O. Henry’ cartoon caption in Rolling Stone in Rolling Stones (1913) 96: See him do it. Can John find the ball? Is it in the cup? No, it is not in it: Neither is John.
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 114: To use a rather undignified figure, the man who is ‘in it’ in New York is like the nervous system of the frog of the psychological laboratory which the operator, by the application of acid, galvanizes into vivid but unmeaning activity.
1914		Joyce ‘The Sisters’ Dubliners (1956) 13: ‘Ah, poor James!’ she said. ‘God knows we done all we could, as poor as we are – we wouldn’t see him want anything while he was in it.’.
1943		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Faustus Kelly in ‘Flann O’Brien’ Stories & Plays (1973) 120: Faith, Martin, I often think you’re not all in it.

9. (Aus.) having sexual intercourse.

1963–74

B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 47: If that sheilah asked me to be in it — I reckon I’d rather be a flamin’ rod walloper.