"go off" [was "step out"] = die

[Joel S. Berson]

At 6/12/2011 10:00 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>Testimony in the trial of Catherine Costello, an abortionist.
>...
>Later, the same witness quoted the expression "go off", with the same sense;
>this is in the OED, with 4 citations, viz., Shakespeare, the Tatler, 1779  &
>1888.

One can find "went off" (e.g., upon being hanged) in 18th-century newspapers.

Joel

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