down the hatch
down the hatch
Down one's throat. This phrase is usually said before one drinks something (often something that has an especially foul or strong taste). "Well, down the hatch!" Ellen said before taking her cough medicine. Shots are on me. Down the hatch, girls!
See also: down, hatch
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
Down the hatch.
I am about to drink this.; Let's all drink up. (Said as one is about to take a drink, especially of something bad-tasting or potent. Also used as a jocular toast.) Bob said, "Down the hatch," and drank the whiskey in one gulp. Let's toast the bride and groom. Down the hatch!
See also: down, hatch
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
down the hatch
Drink up, as in " Down the hatch," said Bill, as they raised their glasses. This phrase, often used as a toast, employs hatch in the sense of "a trap door found on ships." [Slang; c. 1930]
See also: down, hatch
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
down the hatch
INFORMALIf food or drink goes down the hatch, someone eats or drinks it. A record £4.4 billion worth of chocolate and sweets went down the hatch last year. She raised the shell to her lips, closed her eyes and down the hatch went the oyster. Note: People sometimes say down the hatch! just before drinking an alcoholic drink. Here's a glass for you. Down the hatch! Note: In the 18th century, this expression was used as a toast in the navy. A hatch is an opening in the deck of a ship, through which people and goods can pass.
See also: down, hatch
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
down the hatch
used to express friendly feelings towards your companions before drinking. informalSee also: down, hatch
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
ˌdown the ˈhatch
(informal) said before you drink alcohol: He raised his glass, said ‘Down the hatch’, and then drank it all at once!This is thought to come from ships, where goods go down through the hatch (= an opening in the floor) to be stored for the journey, as if they are being swallowed.See also: down, hatch
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
Down the hatch!
exclam. Let’s drink it! (see also hatch.) Down the hatch! Have another?
See also: down
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
down the hatch
Slang Drink up. Often used as a toast.
See also: down, hatch
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
down the hatch
Drink it down, a toast for drinkers. The allusion is to the naval hatch, an opening in a ship’s deck through which cargo, passengers, or crew can pass. The transfer to the human mouth or throat was made long before this slangy expression came into use. John Heywood’s 1546 proverb collection included, “It is good to haue a hatche before the durre,” meaning it is good to have some impediment to speaking before one opens one’s mouth, so as to have time to reflect. The metaphor also appears in Stephen Gosson’s The Schoole of Abuse (1579): “I wish that every rebuker shoulde place a hatch before the door.” The drinker’s meaning, however, is a twentieth-century expression, first appearing in print in the early 1930s, as in Malcolm Lowry’s Ultramarine (1933): “Well, let’s shoot a few whiskies down the hatch.”
See also: down, hatch
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- be down to something
- be down to (do something)
- come a gutser
- ask down
- be down to (one)
- be down to somebody/something
- bounce up and down
- bear down
- bog down
- bogged down