in it adj.
1. (mainly Aus.) agreeing to participate, taking a share.
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. | ||
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. | ||
Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 105: In it — concerned in or making part of a gang, or lot. | ||
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. | ||
Our Mutual Friend (1994) 159: The two men [...] would have been jointly and pretty equally ‘in it’. | ||
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.’. | ||
A Pink ’un and a Pelican 209: I soon rumbled he was in it [i.e. a confidence trick]. | ||
Gold Bat [ebook] ‘This,’ said Harvey, [...] ‘is something like. I’m jolly glad we’re in it’. | ||
Dope 177: ‘Drugs? A Home office agent? Dan, they think the Force is in it?’ ‘They do!’ rapped Kerry. | ||
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. | ||
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. | ‘The Load of Wood’ in||
Shiralee 41: I think I might be in it, that ride to Boomi. | ||
Gone Fishin’ 151: ‘What do you reckon, Nino? Be in it?’ ‘I will be in anything.’. | ||
Glass Canoe (1982) 71: Something might happen and they wouldn’t be in it. | ||
In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 139: He was in it up to his neck. | ||
Chopper From The Inside 73: If they had said, ‘No, we don’t want to be in it,’ I would have said ‘all right’. | ||
🎵 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. | ‘Grammatology’||
On the Bro’d 8: [F]or a whole he got all in it [i.e. pimping] with all the pimp terms and frontin’. |
2. (Aus.) drunk.
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.
‘’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. | ||
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.
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’. | ||
Riverina Recorder (Moulamein, NSW) 6 Mar. 2/5: ‘Oh ’Arry’ wasn’t in it for language. | ||
Mirror of Life 6 July 3/2: It remained for [...] Ringling Bros.’ circus to demonstrate that the hog is ‘strictly in it’ in the matter of brain power, and has a wonderfully receptive faculty [...] These five pigs do nearly , everything but play the piano and talk politics. | ||
Boy’s Own Paper 15 Dec. 163: They were more sure than ever there was something in it. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Feb. 14/3: The Australian bullocky isn’t in it for cuss language with the Constantinople Greek. | ||
Poor Man’s Orange 188: Come on, be in it, chick! | ||
AS XXXIII:1 78: in it, prep. phr. In the supposedly correct or acceptable group. | ‘Miscellany’ in||
It Was An Accident 142: You ever climbed up a mountain? Pain was never in it. | ||
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. | ‘Dead Beard’ at
5. in trouble.
Punch 28 July 38/1: I was in it, old man, and no kid [F&H]. | ||
Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 49: Wasn’t Mr. Prout and Mr. King in — in it too? | ‘In Ambush’ in||
Three Elephant Power 114: We were fairly in it and no mistake. | ‘Victor Second’ in||
(con. 1916) Her Privates We (1986) 17: You an’ I, old son, in it up to the fuckin’ neck, we was! | ||
World to Win 324: You surely are in it to your neck. | ||
‘Screwsman’s Lament’ in Encounter n.d. in 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. | ||
Night to Make the Angels Weep (1967) II xvi: Now you’re in it, ent you, eh? |
6. in contention.
Mirror of Life 27 Jan. 15/1: [headline] [ref. to a champion strong man] sandow not in it. | ||
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. | ||
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.
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.
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’. | ||
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. | cartoon caption in||
Mirror of Life 2 Nov. 7/3: [I]f you don't read The Mirror of Life for boxing news you ain’t in it. | ||
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. | ||
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.’. | ‘The Sisters’||
Stories & Plays (1973) 120: Faith, Martin, I often think you’re not all in it. | Faustus Kelly in ‘Flann O’Brien’
9. (Aus.) having sexual intercourse.
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. |
In phrases
(Aus.) I wouldn’t join in, take part.
Bunch of Ratbags 198: Elaine continued to try to coax me to come into her place to sleep with her, but I wouldn’t be in it. |