Get off it

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on May 04, 2008 at 07:34:

In Reply to: Get off it posted by Beth Crawford on May 03, 2008 at 19:32:

: I'm wondering about the origin of the phrase "get off it". I searched and found ya'll had discussed this in the past, but it was a fuller phrase, "get off your soapbox". Since I was a little girl, this has been a Southernism. I recall on an original Twilight Zone episode ("The After Hours", where Marcia the mannequin and co. come alive) some of the mannequins imploring Marcias to "climb off it".

I've never heard "get off it", but here in the UK we have been saying "Come off it!" since the late 19th century. Similar phrases meaning the same thing are "Get away!" "Come away!" "Give over!" etc.

: Same thing, you think?

• Get off it Smokey Stover 04/May/08