what does this mean?

Question

"ollie ollie oxen free" possibly not the exact spelling but thats what is sounds like

Answer 1

Olly olly oxen free is a phrase used in children's games, which is generally used to indicate that people who are hiding (in a game of hide and seek, for example) can safely come out into the open.

Its root seems to be an English-Norman French-Dutch/German concoction: "Alles, Alles, in kommen frei"or "Oyez, oyez, in kommen frei!"
"Allez, allez" was a Norman addition to the English language, pronounced "ollie, ollie" and sometimes written "oyez, oyez" and meaning "everyone." "In kommen frei" was a phrase popular in Dutch/German New York and Pennsylvania, where many Zonians came from, meaning "come in free."

Answer 2

Olly olly oxen free is a phrase used in children's games, which is generally used to indicate that people who are hiding (in a game of hide and seek, for example) can safely come out into the open.

Answer 3

Olly olly oxen free is a phrase used in children's games, which is generally used to indicate that people who are hiding (in a game of hide and seek, for example) can safely come out into the open.

Origin

The exact origin of the phrase is unknown, but etymologists suspect it is a childish corruption of a phrase that would have made more sense in the Hide-and-seek context; such as "all ye, all ye, oxen free!", "all in free", "out’s in free", "all set free", "All ye all ye outs in free", or "All the, all the outs in free"; or possibly a corruption of the German "Alle, alle auch sind frei", (literally, "Everyone, everyone also is free").

Answer 4

It is what the seeker yells out during Hide and Seek when they cant find a hider, meaning the hider can come to home base free and cannot be tagged IT

Close but it is "Ollie Ollie ox in free" not oxen

Answer 5

Olly olly oxen free is a phrase that all my friends used when we were little in children's games, which is generally used to indicate that people who are hiding (in a game of hide and seek, ) can safely come out into the open.

One guess is that the original was something like “all in free” for “all who are out can come in free”, to indicate that the person who is “it” in the game of hide-and-seek has caught somebody to become the new “it”, and so everybody else can come out of hiding without the risk of being caught.

Answer 6

In a typical version of Hide-and-Go-Seek (as played in the US Midwest) children playing the game chose a tree, a gatepost or the edge of a wall as "Home," and selected one player as "It". He (or she) put his head on his arm at Home, to cover his eyes; and began to count loudly to some limit such as 25, giving the others some 25 seconds in which to hide "Out" in the general vicinity. He then announced, "Ready or not, here I come!", and tried to locate an Out to race Home. An Out who could race Home first, was "Home Free"; he then waited at Home for the game to end while the player who was It tried to locate another Out. If the player who was It won the race Home, the Out who lost this race became It. They then called, "All 'e, all 'e Outs In Free!" (or "oly-oly-oxen free") to bring the rest of the players Home, and restart the game with the new It; or call off the game for the day.

Answer 7

Hide and seek- its yelled when the seeker can't find some of the hiders.

I just learned from on of the answers that is was "All in-All in free-free-free."

We used to just leave and the hiders would think they were hiding really really good until the sun went down ;-)

Answer 8

an old saying that kids said during the Oregn Trail times.

Answer 9

from a kids game called hide and seek.

Answer 10

i give up, come out
(used in hide n seek)