Meaning
To leave a place or set out on a journey, especially somewhat abruptly or with a sense of getting moving.
It’s casual and often used as a cue to wrap things up — said both about oneself leaving and, more bluntly, as a way of telling someone else to go.
Origin
The exact origin is unsettled, with no single confirmed inventor or event, though the Online Etymology Dictionary dates the phrase to 1873 and an 1883 issue of “The Medical World” provides an early clearly documented example: “I pickt up my old pill pockets and hit the road for home.” An imperative form — closer to today’s brusque “hit the road!” — appears in Mary Hallock Foote’s 1894 novel “Cœur d’Alene”: “Get a move on you! Shake it up, man! Hit the road!” Popular claims that the phrase comes from Route 66 or from Ray Charles’s 1961 hit “Hit the Road Jack” are both easily debunked by chronology: Route 66 was only established in 1926, and Charles’s song came nearly a century after the phrase was already in print, meaning both are later cultural associations rather than sources of the expression.
Examples
We should hit the road before traffic gets bad.
It’s getting late, I think I’ll hit the road.
They hit the road early to beat the heat.
A: “Ready to go?” B: “Yeah, let’s hit the road.”
Frequently asked questions
What does 'Hit the road' mean?
To leave a place or set out on a journey, especially somewhat abruptly or with a sense of getting moving.
It’s casual and often used as a cue to wrap things up — said both about oneself leaving and, more bluntly, as a way of telling someone else to go.