Word.ws English Dictionary

hit up against

hit up against verb: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hit, up against.

Verb

hit up against (third-person singular simple present hits up against, present participle hitting up against, simple past and past participle hit up against)

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hit, up against.
  2. (figuratively, intransitive) To encounter barriers, problems or resistance due to (someone or something).
    • Our economic growth model will eventually hit up against hard ecological constraints.
    • It's only a matter of time until their deluded sense of entitlement hits up against reality.

Examples of hit up against in a sentence

  • Mayor Bloomberg's proposal to ban the sale of 32-ounce sodas has hit up against some serious negative public opinion of late.2012 September 11, Ray Fisman, “Don't Ban Big Gulps”, in Slate, archived from the original on 06 Jun 2023:
  • 'But, even in the less price sensitive prime market, rising rents will hit up against an affordability ceiling in the coming months and that will begin to constrain rental growth.'2023 July 11, Myra Butterworth, “Rental hotspots revealed: The regional cities and London areas where rents are shooting up in an 'urban...

Synonyms of hit up against

Forms of hit up against

third-person singular presenthits up against
present participlehitting up against
past participlehit up against
pasthit up against

Questions about hit up against

What does hit up against mean?
Hit up against means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hit, up against.
How do you use hit up against in a sentence?
Mayor Bloomberg's proposal to ban the sale of 32-ounce sodas has hit up against some serious negative public opinion of late.
What part of speech is hit up against?
Hit up against is a verb.
What is the past tense of hit up against?
The past tense of hit up against is hit up against.

Words near hit up against in the dictionary

  1. hit them licks
  2. hit too close to home
  3. hit two birds with one shot
  4. hit two targets with one arrow
  5. hit up
  6. hit up against
  7. hit upon
  8. hit ups
  9. hit wicket
  10. hit with
  11. hit with the stupid stick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hit up against (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “hit up against.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hit_up_against. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.