hit the buffers
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To come to an end or be stopped due to difficulties or problems.
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
kết thúc hoặc bị ngừng lại do khó khăn hoặc vấn đề
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: crash into railway buffers
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The project hit the buffers when funding was withdrawn.
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 buffers” mean?
To come to an end or be stopped due to difficulties or problems. Literally: crash into railway buffers
Is “hit the buffers” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.