English Idiom: Hit the sack / sheets / hay meaning

I am going to talk about an English idiom which is related to humans. The idiom is: Hit the sack / sheets / hay so notice the following conversational example to know the meaning of this idiom:

Jack: Look the math is my favorite one tonight. Do you want to watch it together?
Brian: I don’t think so, I am so exhausted and I need to rest.
Jack: OK, go to your room and hit the sack! I’ll just watch it by myself.

As you can see from the above example, while Brian is tired and need sleeping and he can’t watch a football game with his friend, Jack tells him to go to sleep by using the phrase “hit the sack“.

Idiom #247

Meaning:

To go to bed

To be prepared for going to sleep

To know more about this idiom let’s check the definition of this idiom in some great dictionaries:

Hit the hay

Hit the sack

Hit the sheets :

Oxford:

informal- go to bed, retire, go to sleep; informal turn in, hit the hay

Cambridge:

to go to bed in order to sleep

Origin:

The idiom “Hit the sack” is mainly used between American in an informal way. The origin of the this idiom is going back to the late 1800s to early 1900s, in America. In the days before modern mattresses, people often used to sleep on large sacks filled with hay. Sailors in the navy also used to sleep in hammocks (a type of bed hung between two posts, etc.) similar to sacks. So hitting the sack means preparing the bed for sleeping.

 The following meanings are understood from this idiom based on many dictionaries:

• going to bed
• going to sleep
• old-fashioned informal to go to bed
• indicating that it’s the time of going to bed.

Let’s take a look at some examples about this idiom to understand it better:

• He has to get up early for work tomorrow morning, so I think he’d better hit the sack.
• I’m ready to hit the hay after such a long journey.
• We had a busy day, so its better to hit the sheets.
• Her husband needs to relax before he hits the sack in his room.
• She usually gets back home, eats dinner, watches TV, and then hits the sack.
• After I finished my project, I hit the sack.
• You were really tired after all that exercises, and you had to hit the sheets very soon.
• The project was so hard. I couldn’t hit the sack in nearly twenty four hours!
• Before I hit the sheets, I checked all doors to be closed and all the lights to be turned off.
• She used to read a book before hit the hay.

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