cat in the sack phrase. Origin of the term. Definition of cat in the sack in the Idioms Dictionary. ... or suspicious transaction. What does cat in the sack expression mean? sack (v.1) "to plunder," 1540s, from French sac, in the phrase mettre à sac "put it in a bag," a military leader's command to his troops to plunder a city (parallel to Italian sacco, with the same range of meaning), from Vulgar Latin *saccare "to plunder," originally "to put plundered things into a sack," from Latin saccus "bag" (see sack (n.1)). hit the sack or hit the hay Meaning: to go to bed; to go to sleep; Example: I am really tired after all that exercise. The sack is a "large bag". Sense 1 of the verb dates from the mid 19th century. I am going to hit the sack. But the correct usage of the idiomatic phrase is “to give (someone) the sack. To sack is a slang term that is defined as to fire someone from their job. It means to dismiss (someone) suddenly from a job. Old English sacc, from Latin saccus ‘sack, sackcloth’, from Greek sakkos, of Semitic origin. After the long road trip, we were all dead tired and ready to hit the hay as soon as we reached home. Also find spoken pronunciation of sack in Zulu and in English language. It has been known in France since the 17th century, as 'On luy a donné son sac'. Meaning and definitions of sack, translation in Zulu language for sack with similar and opposite words. The probable derivation of this phrase is an allusion to tradesmen, who owned their own tools and took them with them in a bag or sack when they were dismissed from employment. The first recorded English version is in Charles Westmacott's The English Spy, 1825: Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary. 3. and the sack n. a dismissal. Gunnysack definition is - a sack made of a coarse heavy fabric (such as burlap). What does sack mean? Main meanings of sack in English The Collins English Dictionary, the Chambers Dictionary, and the Oxford English Dictionary all derive the word "sack" from the French sec, "dry".However, the OED cannot explain the change in the vowel, and it has been suggested by others that the term is actually from the Spanish word sacar, meaning "to draw out", as in drawing out wine from a solera, which led to sacas. The boss gave them all the sack. Tags for the entry "sack" See more. Sack definition, a large bag of strong, coarsely woven material, as for grain, potatoes, or coal. The notion is probably of putting booty in a bag. (Always with the in this sense.)