hitting upon

Verb

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

1. To address.
   • He hit upon all major concerns during the presentation.
2. (idiomatic) To think of; to discover or invent.
   • So next day the hunting began. I did not know how to shoot, but I proceeded to learn. And when I had expended some thirty shells for three seals, I decided that the ammunition would be exhausted before I acquired the necessary knowledge. I had used eight shells for lighting fires before I hit upon...1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC