Olly olly oxen free (and variants: ollie ollie umphrey, olly-olly-ee, ally ally in free, ally alley ocean free, etc.) is a catchphrase used in such children's games as hide and seek 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. It is thought to derive from the phrase "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. However, this may not be the etymology at all--"Olly olly oxen free" is suspiciously close to the German phrase "Alle, alle auch sind frei," meaning "everyone, everyone is also free." Various calls used for such purposes have gone by the collective name of "ollyoxalls" in some places.
An old version of the phrase is "all ye, all ye, all come free."
The phrase or its variant appears in the following songs: "Little Tiger" by Jason Collett, "Stranger Than Fiction" by Bad Religion, "Papercut Skin" by The Matches, "Alpha Desperation March" by the Mountain Goats, "At the Helm" by Hieroglyphics, "Love the Hardest Way" by HIM, "Ollie Ollie" by Flatfoot 56, "Drive" by R.E.M., "Play with Me" by Extreme, "Spore" by Ramona Falls, "Eagle Scout" by Dirt Bike Annie, "Saint Ex" by Widespread Panic, "Dimmer" by Bishop Allen, "It's Ok, But Just This Once" by Gym Class Heroes, "Olly Olly Oxen Free" by Amanda Palmer, "Sho' Improve" by Giant Panda, "Ollie" by The Brobecks, "Ally, Ally, Oxen Free" by Rod McKuen, "Hide and Seek" by Schematic, "Pretty Angry (For J. Sheehan)" by Blues Traveler, "Olly Olly Oxen" by Skrip, and "Olley Oxen Free" by Terry Scott Taylor.