English · Idiom Candidate

head for the hills

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

to quickly leave or escape a place

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Rời bỏ hoặc trốn thoát một nơi nhanh chóng

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to move towards the hills

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

I'm still heading for the hills.

Mention the name Paul Reed Smith and most people's wallets head for the hills.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Equivalents & related

Near equivalent ù té quyền To run away, flee, or bail out of an awkward, difficult, or dangerous situation as fast as possible — always said with a wink. Tiếng Việt Related chạy mất dép To flee in such a panic that you leave your sandals behind — to run for it, comically fast. Tiếng Việt · via ù té quyền

Lighter cards are two steps away in the meaning graph — equivalents of equivalents, reached via the entry shown on the card.

Topics: Head Mountains & stone

Common questions

What does “head for the hills” mean?

to quickly leave or escape a place Literally: to move towards the hills

Is “head for the hills” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

What is the closest equivalent?

“ù té quyền” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.