to hit the shelves
3
3.9
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
lanzarse al mercado
- At midnight the 12th version of our flagship operating system will hit the shelves around the world.
- books hit the shelves
- product hit the shelves
- just hit the shelves
Examples
-
Happier at Home hits the shelves in less than a month!
Blog text (16) -
And now we wrap tonight's broadcast... with thoughts from best-selling author, Claudia Hunter, whose new book Women Who Love Men They Hate has just hit the shelves.
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I often get the books as soon as they come in and review them before they hit the shelves.
Blog text (14) -
When that issue hits the shelves in a few days,
Blog text (23) -
I doubt we will ever actually see these lenses hit the shelves.
Blog text (29) -
Then in 1994, the first Charlie Moon novel, The Shaman Sings, hit the shelves.
Blog text (19) -
The first Hostess brands hit the shelves in the 1930s, and kids have been carrying them in lunch boxes ever since.
Blog text (18) -
I thought it was very odd, especially when Aeroclassics sold out the 6-packs before they hit the shelves.
Blog text (29) -
On the other hand, the Nexus 4 will hit the shelves on Nov. 13, and the 16GB is expected to be priced around $349.
Blog text (21) -
The new smartphone model will hit the shelves next Friday.
Synonyms
9
3.5
To make a new product ready for people to buy
Antonyms
How Available
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression uses a metaphorical sense of 'hit' (to reach/arrive at) combined with 'shelves' (store displays), so a learner who knows the constituents can plausibly infer that something is arriving in shops. However, the meaning is a conventional market idiom rather than a literal composition, so the connection is only partly predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Hit the shelves comes from the picture of a new product being put into a shop: the box seems to hit the wooden shelves when it is placed there, a simple image of arrival. So, hit the shelves means 'to become available in shops'.