Get Off It/Me and Dead In The Water

"I'll do it, I'll do it.  Now will you get off of me?"

The last post was about the phrasal verb, Get Off, which was an extremely long phrasal verb to write about.  However, I am not quite done examining this phrasal.  It has a couple more usages: Get Off Of It and Get Off Of Me, which have very different meanings.  Get Off (Of) It means:
 A way of expressing disbelief  and demanding that someone cease talking,

I knew he was lying so I told him to get off of it. .
Oh, get off it!  You know that performance enhancing drugs are a part of professional sports these days!

Notes:  Intransitive, Inseparable.  There is a great deal of question about just exactly "It" is in this phrasal verb.  Many suggest that "It" refers to a "soap box", thus the idiom "Get Off Your Soap box" which commands people who stand on soapboxes to cease trying to persuade their listeners of some proposition.  Soap boxes were apparently popular for people to stand on when they  exercised their right to free speech and made a speech in a public area. 

Get Off (Of) Me! means:

When someone is  pressuring your space, physically and or mentally.

I walk into a room, and my co-worker impatiently says, "where were you?" I tell her, "I was in the bathroom, get off me".
How many times are you going to ask me to do this for you? I told you "no" the first time.  Get Off Of Me!

Note:  it may be something useful to say to someone who always bombards you with questions that you dont feel like you should have to answer... "get off me!"

"Dead In The Water"

Today's idiom is Dead In The Water, which means:

A project unable to function or move and thus, make no progress. A sailing ship that is dead in the water is stationary, with no wind in its sails to make it come alive. Transferring this to everyday life, it means 'not going anywhere, brought to a halt' 

With no leadership, the project was dead in the water.

We've just run out of gas.  We're dead in the water

With the injury to their two star players at the same time, the team's goal of a winning season was dead in the water.