to hit the bricks
2
9.5
- idiom
- Informal
:
salir a buscar trabajo
- Time to hit the bricks and get us a deal.
Examples
-
Time to hit the bricks and beat it.
-
I'd say finish up your free breakfast and hit the bricks.
-
After finishing their coffee, they decided it was time to hit the bricks and search for a new job.
-
Once the meeting ended, she told her colleagues to hit the bricks and start looking for clients.
-
With summer approaching, they are ready to hit the bricks and travel around the country.
Synonyms
90
2.5
To leave a place and start a journey by car or bus
14
6.8
Leave a place or start a journey
12
7.7
Leave a place quickly, often in a rude way
5
5.8
To leave a place suddenly and unexpectedly
5
7.2
Leave home and move to a new place
1
7.0
To go out onto the street to look for work, run for exercise, or sell things
Antonyms
How Quickly
- Informal
90
2.5
- Informal
2
9.5
57
2.4
∞
1.0
207
3.7
- Informal
407
2.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
hit + the + bricks
The literal image of 'hit' + 'bricks' can evoke going out onto the street (so a learner might infer 'leave' or 'go out'), but the specific idiomatic senses—especially 'start looking for work' or the colloquial sense of 'set off'—are not directly derivable from the constituents and are culturally/regionally conditioned. Because there is a partial physical grounding but the precise meaning is unpredictable without exposure, this is best described as semi-transparent.
Etymology
Hit the bricks shows someone hitting the hard bricks of the street as they walk away on foot to look for work or travel. So, the phrase came to mean 'leave' or 'start looking for work'.