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The verb to hit has several and very interesting idioms. Let’s learn some of them.

Hit and miss. We say that a situation is hit and miss when it occurs at random, by chance, rather than by planning. For example, we don’t know which mosquitoes carry malaria so identifying them is a hit and miss situation.

Hit someone below the belt. This means that someone uses dishonest ways to get advantage on something or someone. This expression comes from boxing, because delivering a blow below the waistline is against the rules.

To hit the bottle means that you start drinking heavily, especially when you’re trying to escape from your problems. We can say that John’s been hitting the bottle ever since his wife left him.

Hit the ground running. It expresses the idea that you start your day or a project very energetically. For instance, his experience as a teacher allowed him to hit the ground running when he started working as a presenter at that company.

Hit the hay. If you hit the hay you go to sleep. It comes from a time when farm workers used to sleep in barns.

Hit the headlines. If news hit the headlines, it is printed and talked about in a very big way. For example, the scandal involving the governor’s wife hit the headlines and now everybody knows about it.

Hit home. If you say something and it hits home, what you said has the desired effect, you get across exactly what you meant to say. For example, the teacher’s critique really hit home and he started to study harder and harder.

Our last expression is to hit the nail in the head. This expression means to do exactly the right thing or to be right about something. My manager hit the nail in the head when he hired Jack to take care of advertising. That guy is really really good.

This is all for today, folks. See you next time!

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