January 4, 1999

Dodge, get out of

What is the origin and meaning of the phrase "Get out of dodge," or its variant "Get the hell/heck out of dodge"? Is "dodge" supposed to be "Dodge"?

Yes. The phrase having the basic form get [the hell] out of Dodge is a reference to Dodge City, Kansas.

Dodge City was the setting of innumerable Wild-West movies and books and, most prominently, the CBS-TV series Gunsmoke, which ran from 1955 to 1975. After being defeated by the good guys, badmen might stereotypically be commanded to "get the hell out of Dodge."

The transferred sense, 'to leave or get out (of anywhere) at once', arose in the mid-1960s, when it was recorded in the slang of youth gangs, and became common by the 1970s.