My son picked this phrase up from a TV show {possibly Scrubs} but a simple search of the internet suggests several meanings. We usually have it as "That was friendly {a kiss, cat licking your face, baby's touching your cheeks}, now back away and give me my personal space back {tired of your breath, tired of your fur in my nose, your chocolate covered fingers on my face}."
Where did this phrase start? And how long has it been around?
Learn English – Origins of “Now, get off the face.”
expressions
Best Answer
The more typical phrase is:
But this is not lighthearted in nature and means, "Stop harassing me."
I was able to find a few uses of "get off my face" but there doesn't seem to be a commonly accepted meaning aside from a literal "You are on my face; get off." This suggests that it has not been around for very long. It is very unlikely that we can know where the phrase started as I'm not sure it really qualifies as a phrase yet.
Comparing usage counts between "get out of my face" and "get off my face" on Google backs this up.