Olly olly oxen free


"Olly olly oxen free" is a catchphrase used in children's games such as hide and seek, capture the flag, and kick the can to indicate that players who are hiding can come out into the open without losing the game, that the position of the sides in a game has changed, or, alternatively, that the game is entirely over.
The Dictionary of American Regional English says that the phrase may be derived from all ye, all ye outs in free, all the outs in free, or possibly calling all the "outs" in free; in other words, all who are out may come in without penalty. Various calls used for such purposes have gone by the collective name of "ollyoxalls" in some places. Others speculate that the phrase may be a corruption of a hypothetical and ungrammatical German phrase alle, alle, auch sind frei. Another German variant is "alle alle Ochsen sind frei", meaning "all the oxen are free", which is a good reason for the oxen and their chasers to run.
Another variant besides "Alle alle auch sind frei" is "Ollie Ollie in come free".
"Olly olly oxen free" or a variant is the name of songs released by the Ted Weems orchestra, Terry Scott Taylor, metalcore band Sworn In, Amanda Palmer, of a film starring Katharine Hepburn, and a video game by Night School Studio.