Word.ws English Dictionary

hit the rack

hit the rack verb: to go to bed.

Verb

hit the rack (third-person singular simple present hits the rack, present participle hitting the rack, simple past and past participle hit the rack)

  1. To go to bed.
    • By the time I had unpacked my sea bag, made my rack, and finished a good long hot shower, it was late in the evening. I decided to make it a day and hit the rack.2010, Herb Brewer, Chronicles of a Marine Rifleman: Vietnam, 1965-1966, →ISBN, page 171
    • With that in mind, he walked off to his bedroom and shut the door. It was time to hit the rack.2012, Whit Howland, The Case of the Sad Luck Dame: A Huey Dusk Caper, →ISBN
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hit, rack.
    • I said, “Holy old Fuck,” when the cue ball hit the rack dead on, bounced straight back, and stopped dead in the middle of the table.2015, Tom Green, The Blue Hand:, →ISBN, page 71

Forms of hit the rack

third-person singular presenthits the rack
present participlehitting the rack
past participlehit the rack
pasthit the rack

Origin of hit the rack

From the use of rack to mean a berth or bunk. Compare hit the sack.

Questions about hit the rack

What does hit the rack mean?
Hit the rack means to go to bed.
What part of speech is hit the rack?
Hit the rack is a verb.
What is the past tense of hit the rack?
The past tense of hit the rack is hit the rack.

Words near hit the rack in the dictionary

  1. hit the nail on the head
  2. hit the net
  3. hit the pan
  4. hit the pause button
  5. hit the pavement
  6. hit the rack
  7. hit the road
  8. hit the rock
  9. hit the rocks
  10. hit the roof
  11. hit the sack

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hit the rack (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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