Put the hammer down
verb phrase
To accelerate; go full speed: Guerrero put the hammer down and passed Unser a few laps later (Car racing 1960+, fr truckers)
Read Also:
- Put the heat on
see: turn up the heat
- Put the heat on someone
verb phrase To use coercive pressure; LEAN ON someone: He put the heat on me to vote that way (1936+)
- Put the icing on the cake
verb phrase To put a victory beyond question; ensure a favorable result: He iced the cake with a knockdown in the seventh (1940s+) Related Terms ice the cake
- Put their heads together
see: put our heads together
- Put the lid on
Also, keep the lid on. Suppress, as in I don’t know how but we’ll have to put the lid on that rumor about her, or Let’s keep the lid on our suspicions. The word lid here is used in the sense of “a cover for a container.” [ Early 1900s ]