off someone's back
Idioms
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Also off someone's case. No longer harassing or bothering someone. It is often put as, as in I told her to get off my back—I'll mow the lawn tomorrow, or I wish Dad would get off my case about grades. The first of these slangy terms dates from the 1880s although it became frequent only in the 1940s, and its antonym, on one's back (as in He's been on my back about that report all morning) dates from about 1960. The variant off someone's case was first recorded only in 1970, and its antonym, on someone's case (as in He's always on my case) in 1971. Also see get off, def. 8.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.