Word.ws English Dictionary

hit a lick

hit a lick verb: to earn a large sum of money in a short amount of time, usually illegally.

Verb

hit a lick (third-person singular simple present hits a lick, present participle hitting a lick or hittin' a lick, simple past and past participle hit a lick)

  1. (Multicultural-London-English, idiomatic, slang, African-American Vernacular) To earn a large sum of money in a short amount of time, usually illegally.
    • I figure frauds never hit a lick before
      So they don't know the feeling when them things get across2007, “Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)…”, in American Gangster, performed by Jay-Z
    • Fucked my first bitch, passed her to my nigga
      Hit my first lick, passed with my nigga2014, “My Nigga”, in My Krazy Life, performed by YG

Forms of hit a lick

third-person singular presenthits a lick
present participlehitting a lick
present participlehittin' a lick
past participlehit a lick
pasthit a lick
alternative formhit licks
alternative formhit them licks

Origin of hit a lick

In its basic meaning, a reference to a robbery of a liquor store.

Questions about hit a lick

What does hit a lick mean?
Hit a lick means to earn a large sum of money in a short amount of time, usually illegally.
What part of speech is hit a lick?
Hit a lick is a verb.
What is the past tense of hit a lick?
The past tense of hit a lick is hit a lick.

Words near hit a lick in the dictionary

  1. hit
  2. hit a brick wall
  3. hit a clip
  4. hit a false note
  5. hit a home run
  6. hit a lick
  7. hit a nerve
  8. hit a raw nerve
  9. hit a six
  10. hit a snag
  11. hit a stain

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hit a lick (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “hit a lick.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hit_a_lick. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.