Have it away

There was a previous meaning of ‘have it away’, which was used in the UK in the mid 20th century to mean ‘run away; abscond from arrest’. This was later extended to the more picturesque ‘have it away on his toes’.

The euphemistic version is first cited in the 1966 novel by Thom Keyes All Night Stand :

He could chat a chick and he didn’t mind having it away with some man either.

This was a variant of the earlier ‘have it off’, with the same meaning. Here’s an example of that from 1937 in John Worby’s The Other Half – the Autobiography of a Spiv:

I get good dough. I had it off to-night for five pounds.