hit out

Verb

hit out (third-person singular simple present hits out, present participle hitting out, simple past and past participle hit 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. (figurative) To react viciously (towards someone/something).
   • 1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part II, XX [Uniform ed., p. 204]:

     '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. …"

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

     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.

3. (obsolete) To perform by good luck.
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:

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

4. To leave; to head out.

Anagrams

• outhit