What it means
To hit the sack means to go to bed and call it a night. It's a relaxed, old-school way to say you're done, tired, and ready to flop into sleep. People use it when the day's run out of juice and their whole body is asking for lights out.
Usage examples
"I'm shattered, I'm going to hit the sack before midnight for once."
"The kids were so tired after the party they hit the sack without a fuss."
"Early start tomorrow, so I am going to hit the sack now."
"I've got work at six, so I'm hitting the sack before my brain turns to soup."
"We stayed up chatting rubbish for hours, then everyone finally hit the sack around two."
Where it comes from
This phrase goes back to the days when a mattress might literally be a sack stuffed with straw or similar filling. So if you were heading off to sleep, you really were going to the sack. It's an old English image, and it's closely related to hit the hay.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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