Word.ws English Dictionary

hits out

hits out is the third-person singular simple present indicative of hit out.

Meaning of hit out

Verb

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

  1. To strike out with the fist, usually without planning or accuracy.
    • Feeling somebody grab at his wallet in the darkness, he hit out at the assailant.
  2. (figuratively) To react viciously (towards someone/something).
    • 'What have we done? What shall we ever do? Just drift and criticize, while people who know what they want snatch it away from us and laugh.”
      “Perhaps you are that sort. I’m not. When the moment comes I shall hit out like any ploughboy. …"1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part II, XX [Uniform ed., p. 204]
  3. (obsolete) To perform by good luck.
    • having the sound of those auncient poets still ringing in his eares, he mought needes, in singing, hit out some of their tunes1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC
  4. To leave; to head out.

Questions about hits out

What is hits out the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Hits out is the third-person singular simple present indicative of hit out.

Words near hits out in the dictionary

  1. hits on all six
  2. hits one hard
  3. hits one out of the ball park
  4. hits one out of the ballpark
  5. hits one's marks
  6. hits out
  7. hits pause
  8. hits pay dirt
  9. hits paydirt
  10. hits rock bottom
  11. hits send

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hits out (page history and authors); hit out (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: “hits out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hits_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.