Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, also cut grit, hit grit, hit the gravel, ...turf, wallop the flint) to leave, to get moving, to travel fast.

1859		Harper’s Mag. Dec. 139/1: As soon as I cut grit they all started too, and let loose two big bull-dogs they had chained [DA].
1885		Cheyenne Transporter 15 Apr. 3/2: The young man had to hit the grit lively.
1898		F.B. Lloyd Sketches of Country Life 153: [He] hit the grit and hit it a movin.
1904		Ade ‘The Fable of the Society-Trimmers’ in True Bills 83: I never caused a Book-Maker to hit the Grit.
1905		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:i 83: hit the grit, v. phr. To leave; to walk away. ‘I guess I’ll hit the grit, seein’ ’s I’ve got fired.’.
1907		Wenatchee Daily World (Wash State) 14 May 1/1: The big boxer accordingly armed himself ...] and hit the grit.
1911		H.B. Wright Winning of Barbara Worth 268: We’ll hit the grit good and hard now for we must be in the sand hills by morning .
1926		Z.N. Hurston Sweat (1995) 962: Dat’s a nice snake an’ anybody doan lak ’im kin jes’ hit de grit.
1932		M. Marshall Travels of Tramp-Royal 142: Then come on, you bull-men! Hike out, you flat-feets! Wallop the flint, you horn-hoofed wanderlusters!
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 69: Grab your dinner-bucket and hit the grit. Don’t keep the straw-boss waiting.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 87: The best thing she can do is hit the grit out of town.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 98/1: Hit the turf. [...] 3. (Hobo) To take to the road; to go out on the street or road to beg.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 213: Blow, hit grit, hit the trail.
1960		D. Hamilton Death of a Citizen 25: The rear end broke loose as we hit the gravel, and I almost lost the heap completely.
1989		N.R. McMillen Dark Journey 150: Perhaps as many as one in three tenant families chose, in the plantation idiom, to ‘hit the grit’.

2. (US) to die.

1986

cited in DARE.

3. (US tramp, also hit the gravel) to jump or be forced to jump off a moving train.

1907		J. London Road 138: The shack stuck his head into my box and said: ‘Hit the grit, you son of a toad! Hit the grit!’.
1913		H.A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 128: [I] often find myself [...] carried entirely out of my district [...] and have to ‘hit the grit’ in ‘hobo’ fashion and catch something back to the spot where I left off.
1925		J. Tully Beggars of Life 47: ‘Pay us, or hit the gravel,’ snarled the conductor.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 132: He was either killed or compelled to hit the grit (jump).
1930		RR Man’s Mag. 470: Hitting the grit or gravel — Falling off or getting kicked off a car [DARE].
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 207: Hitting the grit – To be forced off a fast moving train.