hɪt ðə sæk
General
informal
beginner
- Literally:
- To strike a sack
What does "hit the sack" mean?
- To go to bed
- To go to sleep
Examples
- I'm exhausted—time to hit the sack.
- You should hit the sack early tonight.
- After the long day, I couldn't wait to hit the sack.
Origin
From the days when beds were often just sacks filled with straw or hay. Hitting the sack meant falling onto this makeshift bed.
How to use it
Interchangeable with 'hit the hay.' Very common casual expression for going to bed.
Similar expressions
go to bed
go to sleep
turn in
hit the hay
Opposites
stay up
pull an all-nighter
Related idioms
- actions speak louder than words
What people do is more important than what they say
- better safe than sorry
It's better to be careful and prevent problems than to take risks
- so far so good
Things have gone well up to now
- easier said than done
Something is more difficult to do than to talk about
- make a long story short
To summarize or get to the point
- to make matters worse
In addition to existing problems
Use it in a practice answer
Try "hit the sack" in a CELPIP-style Speaking or Writing task. The AI feedback tells you whether your word choice worked.