hit out

present singular third person hits out · participle present hitting out

1. To strike out with the fist, usually without planning or accuracy.

   Feeling somebody grab at his wallet in the darkness, he hit out at the assailant.

2. figurativelyTo react viciously (towards someone/something).

   'What have we done? What shall we ever do? Just drift and criticize, while people who know what they want snatch it away from us and laugh.” “Perhaps you are that sort. I’m not. When the moment comes I shall hit out like any ploughboy. …"

   1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part II, XX [Uniform ed., p. 204]

   1 more example

   Obama [told] aides while he was still in office that he would see Warren’s rise as a “repudiation of him” and his economic policies. Obama appeared to hit out at Warren during an event earlier this month when he warned Democrats not to be “deluded” that “resistance” to “bold” ideas will simply melt away.

   2019 November 27, Igor Derysh, “Obama privately vowed to intervene in primary to stop Bernie Sanders from winning nomination: report”, in Salon

3. obsoleteTo perform by good luck.

   having the sound of those auncient poets still ringing in his eares, he mought needes, in singing, hit out some of their tunes

   1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC

4. To leave; to head out.