“Down the hatch” is an English idiom used as a toast to encourage someone to drink their entire beverage. It can also be used when eating. The phrase originated from cargo being stored in the hatch area of ships. It has a versatile meaning and can refer to the mouth, throat, or stomach. Sailors likely originated the phrase.
“Down the hatch” is an English idiom used to encourage someone to drink the entire contents of their favorite beverage. In this way it serves as a sort of toast to be used in polite company when drinking alcohol. This phrase can also be used whenever someone is eating or drinking something right before the person opens their mouth to eat or drink. “Down the hatch” appears to have originated from the practice of vessels carrying cargo below decks in the hatch area.
An idiom is a phrase or word that develops a meaning that does not necessarily correspond to its literal definition. Its meaning may also vary from what it was when it was first originated. Instead, it gets its new meaning from how it is used among people of a particular culture. Idioms provide color and impact to speakers that aren’t meant to sound corny. Many idioms have to do with food and drink, and one such idiom is the phrase “down the hatch”.
The most common use of this idiom occurs whenever two or more people are preparing to drink alcohol at the same time. On occasions like these, it’s common for one member of the group to say a few words before everyone drinks at the same time. This is known as toast, and “down the hatch” is one of the most popular general toasts available. It implies that the drinkers should finish the whole drink before them in a lift of the glass or container.
While often used as a toast, the meaning of this expression is versatile enough to include all occasions where food or drink is involved. Essentially, the “hatch” could mean the person’s mouth, throat, or stomach, as all of those areas are destinations for food and drink in the human body. As an example of how this phrase is used, consider the sentence, “Don’t be afraid of the size of that steak; throw it down the hatch.”
In the days when ships were a more popular form of transportation for people and goods, this phrase literally referred to the part of the ship where cargo was stored for the journey. This is likely to have caused people to think about eating and drinking as the vessel was figuratively eating the cargo. Sailors were also known to drink and make rowdy toasts, so it is likely that “bottom of the hatch” originated in that environment.
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