hit the bricks

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

to start walking or leave a place, often to look for work

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

bắt đầu đi bộ hoặc rời khỏi một nơi, thường để tìm việc

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: strike the bricks
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

After being laid off, he hit the bricks to find a new job

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

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.

Common questions

What does “hit the bricks” mean?

to start walking or leave a place, often to look for work Literally: strike the bricks

Is “hit the bricks” formal or informal?

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