What is "olly olly oxen free"

phr. A call in a children's game to say that players in hiding are free to come out.

Olly olly oxen free (and variants: olly olly umphrey, olly olly ee, outtie outtie let's be free, olly olly oxen tree, all-y all-y all set free, olly olly in come free, ally alley ocean free, etc.) is a catchphrase used in children's games such as hide and seek, capture the flag, or 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 (as in which side is in the field or which side is at bat or "up" in baseball or kickball), or, alternatively, that the game is entirely over. Cassidy and Hall write 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. Tukey and Rowell speculate that the phrase may be a corruption of a hypothetical and ungrammatical German phrase alle, alle, auch sind frei (all, all, are also free).

Another possible origin might be the Greek language. Óloi óloi éxo would translate to "everybody everybody out."

Olly, Olly, Oxen Free (also known as The Great Balloon Adventure or The Great Balloon Race) is a 1978 American family adventure film directed by Richard A. Colla and starring Katharine Hepburn. The screenplay by Eugene Poinc is based on a story by Poinc, Colla, and Maria L. de Ossio. The title is derived from " Olly olly oxen free" a phrase used in children's games to indicate that those in hiding came out into the open safely and freely.