Cheesed Off

British military slang, first recorded in 1942 during the Second World War, alongside its close cousin "browned off," meaning much the same thing. Exactly why "cheese" became attached to irritation isn't documented anywhere. One loose theory connects it to the older slang phrase "cheese it," meaning to stop or clear off; another ties it to "hard cheese," an old expression for bad luck. The Oxford English Dictionary is honest about it: the origin is simply listed as uncertain, and no wartime source explains why servicemen settled on cheese specifically, rather than any other food, as their image for fed-up frustration.