Take a hike is an idiom that has been in use since the nineteenth century. We will examine the meaning of the idiom take a hike, where it came from, and some examples of its use in sentences.
Take a hike is a suggestion that someone leave, that someone go away or someone depart the area. Take a hike is a rude phrase, usually spoken to a pest or spoken by a bully. The origin of the word hike is not definite, though the word hyke, meaning to take a vigorous walk, was in use at the turn of the nineteenth century. By 1830, hike was used to tell someone in a rough manner to depart the area. Today, take a hike is a phrase that is often used humorously in advertising campaigns aimed at extolling the virtues of relaxing in nature. Related phrases are takes a hike, took a hike, taking a hike.
Examples
General Motors should tell the UAW to take a hike (The Washington Examiner)
While addressing the United Nations Security Council in New York, Pence looked directly at Venezuela’s U.N. Ambassador Samuel Moncada and essentially told him to take a hike. (The Week Magazine)
One of the best things that ever happened to me was when Aaron Carter told me to take a hike, and then blocked me on Twitter. (The Phoenix New Times)
As Sanford spoke with reporters, attendees waving Trump/Pence signs surrounded him, some chanting, “Trump! Trump!” and “Go take a hike,” a reference to Sanford’s 2009 disappearance to visit a mistress in Argentina while telling his gubernatorial staff he was hiking the Appalachian Trail. (The Asheboro Courier Tribune)