batten down the hatches prepare for a difficulty or crisis.

☞ Batten down the hatches was originally a nautical term meaning 'make a ship's hatches secure with gratings and tarpaulins' in expectation of stormy weather.

1998Oldie They endured the hard pounding of the Seventies, when Labour battened down the hatches, and soldiered through the follies of the early Eighties.