23 skidoo

23 skidoo

To clear out or get away in haste before getting into or causing trouble, referring either to oneself or to another. "23" may refer to the Flatirons Building in New York City (located on 23rd Street), around which great winds tend to blow. It may also derive from an older use meaning to tell someone to clear out of one's way. Primarily heard in US. It looks like there's trouble brewing here. I'd better 23 skidoo! Quit loitering around here. 23 skidoo!
See also: 23, skidoo
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

23-skiddoo!

No one knows the origin of this phrase that started in the early 20th century. If it had started in the 1920s, when it was at its height of popularity, one might have thought it was a way to bid farewell to the year 1923. But both “23” and “skidoo” already existed as slang for getting out (or away) in a hurry. Speculation about the origin includes the California mining town of Skidoo that had 23 saloons; going to town to hit them all might have been done without wasting time. Another thought is that construction workers at the Flatiron Building on Manhattan's West 23rd Street used the phrase to signal each other that an attractive young woman was passing. But no one knows for sure.
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • 23
  • 23-skiddoo!
  • skiddoo
  • skidoo
  • for (one's) (own) sake
  • for sake
  • keep (someone or something) in sight
  • keep sight of
  • keep sight of (someone or something)
  • keep sight of somebody/something
References in periodicals archive
Wake Up the Dream is a family-friendly album by the Grammy-winning Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, featuring original music that explores the world of dreams and dream-inspired songs.
Wake Up the Dream
Tracks like No Future Days, Dreamkillers and Van Eyk Freaking echoed the raw electronic punk of early LCD Soundsystem, mixed with a bit of 23 Skidoo, some Depeche Mode and even a bit of John Carpenter.
Future Get Down music Broadcast, Glasgow 30.04
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, Asheville Symphony, Orion Weiss & DJ Marley Carroll
Mozartistic
Best Children's Album: "Infinity Plus One" - Secret Agent 23 Skidoo
Grammy Awards 2017 Full List Of Winners
Features the Lockheed P-38 Lightning 23 Skidoo, and F4U-1A Corsair, and perhaps a B-25 Mitchell bomber.
2014 WWII Air Shows
Strumming his guitar with BOO written across the fret board he soon had the audience singing along to songs like 23 Skidoo, that he described as an ear worm of a track.
On The Beat with Robert Nichols
Ever since hearing their early studies in collaboration with groups such as Death in June, 23 Skidoo, Nurse with Wound, and Psychic TV, I have been excited to see what this band will do next.
Christian Holstad
Telache Canyon throbs, Last Arcade shimmers and, best of all, The Tammus Tree, opens with a beat reminiscent of The Flowers of Romance before venturing into a similar territory to 23 Skidoo's early 80s masterpiece, Seven Songs.
CULTURE: Give your ears a treat; ROCK AND POP CDS
More recently, Sanders maintained a cult status on a different dancefloor by guesting with the industrial funkers 23 Skidoo.
Pharoah crying out to be heard; WHAT'S ON: Jazz
The program will consist of Verdi's "Emissary Fanfare," Gould's Symphony for Band, Bernard Gilmore's Five Folk Songs for Soprano and Band, Zo Elliott's "British Eighth March," Gioacchino Rossini's "La Boutique Fantasque," Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm," Ken Whitcomb's "23 Skidoo!" and A.
PERFORMANCE NOTES
My rule of thumb has been that even if you believe you have come up with the mother of all turns of phrase, it may be "the bee's knees" as it goes into your PC, it's all too likely to be "23 skidoo" by the time it gets edited, printed, mailed, and into the hands of your prospects.
Copywriting techniques--words to use and words to avoid. (DM Notebook)
At that corner, the famous phrase, "23 Skidoo" was coined, for the breeze is brisk there.
The Faith Report: The life and times of Madison Square
Rocksteady is the third family-friendly album of Josh & the Jamtones, featuring special guests Jesse Peter Wagner, Grammy-nominated Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, and Father Goose.
Rocksteady
Q What does the old phrase "23 Skidoo" actually mean, and where does it come from?
Just ask; Posers and puzzlers
23 SKIDOO Seven Songs, Urban Gamelan, the Gospel Comes to New Guinea (Ronin): Anticipation of Ronin's round of 23 Skidoo reissues has been mounting in my house for at least a year now.
CD REVIEWS: REISSUES OF THE WEEK