hit home

Related to hit home: stay put, rub off, the home stretch, overstay welcome

hit home

To be fully understood by or strongly affect or resonate with someone. It wasn't until he was threatened with losing his job that the comments about John's work ethic really hit home. The film has an underlying theme of grief and loss that will hit home with a lot of viewers.
See also: hit, home
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

hit home

 and strike home
Fig. to really make sense; [for a comment] to make a very good point. Mary's criticism of my clothes hit home, so I changed. The teacher's comment struck home and the student vowed to work harder.
See also: hit, home
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

hit home

or

strike home

COMMON If a situation or what someone says hits home or strikes home, people realize that it is real or true, even though it may be unpleasant. In many cases the reality of war doesn't hit home until people are actually called upon to fight. David's accusation about his motives had hit home more than he cared to admit. The severity of the situation struck home last week when hundreds of troops entered the town.
See also: hit, home
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

hit (or strike) home

1 (of a blow or a missile) reach an intended target. 2 (of a person's words) have the intended, often unsettling or painful, effect on their audience. 3 (of the significance or true nature of a situation) become fully realized by someone.
See also: hit, home
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

hit/strike ˈhome


1 (of an insult, a remark, criticism, etc.) affect or hurt somebody in the intended way; make somebody really understand something: His criticism of my work struck home. I knew he was right. My remarks last week obviously hit home because he has not been late for work since.
2 (of a punch, a blow, an arrow, a bullet, etc.) hit somebody/something where you intended; hit the target: The punch hit home and Ferguson fell to the floor.
See also: hit, home, strike
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • hit/strike home
  • strike home
  • strike home with
  • strike home with (one)
  • hit home with (one)
  • in (someone's or something's) name
  • tough break
  • get no change out of
  • get no change out of (someone)
  • get no change out of someone
References in periodicals archive
"But then it goes back to normal and on the day it's going to really hit home.
McCusker ready for the deep end
It took the Blaze less than four minutes to equalise with a powerplay hit home by Chambers but the Vipers went back into the lead again (32) when Mark Rooneem capitalised on another powerplay chance.
BLAZE BATTER POOR VIPERS IN DOUBLE-HEADER; ICE HOCKEY
THE dramatic fallout from a firework going off in a pocket is the hard-hitting image fire chiefs hope will hit home this Bonfire Night and prevent a tragedy.
Hard-hitting campaign
The striker hit home the opener after five minutes before Mark Chisholm (left) equalised in 66 minutes.
Keith finish best of the rest; HIGHLAND ROUND-UP
Louise Bennett, Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce chief executive, said: "There is certainly more of a clamour for rates to be cut as the credit crisis has really started to hit home ...
Fall in interest rates 'inevitable'
But the harsh realities of life as manager at Real Sociedad have started to hit home for the Welshman.
Football: Boss Coleman has his wings clipped
Maybe this sounds weird, but that comment from the woman in the bank really hit home. This magazine, the girls who read it and the people who create it mean the world to me.
Karen
Bebe Moore Campbell's responses hit home. My 12-year-old son is currently an in-patient in a psychiatric hospital.
A better perspective
I wanted to thank you for publishing "Bi and Invisible." It was insightful and hit home in a few places.
Bi vocal
"That really kind of hit home because here we are thinking we have achieved a goal by not losing any more people and these guys would consider it a success if they achieved the same goal, but from a completely different perspective," he says.
Hawken has hungry eyes for southern sprawl
But the trace of a newspaper headline that literally accompanies many of these paintings discloses the explicitly "traumatic" political dimension of the work, which can hit home with the force of an unexpected blast--no, SEP.
On Kawara: David Zwirner
For a story ballet to hit home, you need two things: a good plot and a lead couple who can make you care about what happens next.
Tell me a story
Those lessons also hit home last year when I saw my brother deal with his prostate cancer with the same positive attitude that our parents had modeled.
Happy anniversary
Lenahan of Resource Recovery Corp., that appeared in the Letterbox of the December 2003 issue of MODERN CASTING hit home hard.
Trumpeting "Buy American"
His family looked on anxiously from ringside as Magee's ferocious blows hit home and the Hitman looked to be on his way out.
Hatton hits back to win battle