British Slang For Going To Bed (12 Examples!)


British Slang For Going To Bed

It’s the end of the night, and you’re looking for a way out.

Most of the guests have left, but there are still some stragglers who don’t want the night to end.

How do you tell them you’re going to bed without just declaring that and then leaving?

In Britain, there are many ways of doing this, meaning there are many slang ways of saying you are going to bed.

Given that it’s something we all do every day, there is a naturally large lexicon of slang terms for going to bed.

Let’s look at some of them.

British Slang For Going To Bed

Hit the hay

First we have one which you may be familiar with if you live in an English-speaking country.

This is a very popular phrase that means going to bed.

“I’m so tired, I should hit the hay,” for example.

It means you are going to go to bed and go to sleep at night.

This phrase originates from the early 20th and late 19th Century, referencing both the hay out of which bedding and pillows were made and the fact that many people would simply sleep in the hay in a barn.

 

Hit the sack

Similarly to hit the hay, people in Britain also say “hit the sack”—although definitely not to the same extent that it is used elsewhere.

It means you are going to bed and are too tired to stay up any longer.

It’s very similar to “hit the hay” in the sense that it meant someone who would sleep on a sack, originally, such as a sack full of grain.

 

Turning in

Next we have turning in, which is definitely a uniquely British phrase.

While it is used elsewhere, it is by far more common in Britain than it is anywhere else.

It just means that you are going to end the night and go to bed.

“I’m exhausted, I think I’ll just turn in now,” for example.

It was originally a nautical expression, as best we can tell, dating back to the 17th Century.

Some have suggested a connection to “turning in” to a hostel after a long journey.

 

Call it a night

Next we have “call it a night,” which, again, is quite commonly used in other parts of the English-speaking world.

It can mean going to bed or just ending a night, whatever happens, to be going on—whether work or play.

“Well, I can’t think straight anymore, shall we call it a night?” for example.

It seems to have come into use around the 1930s, when people would call it a night after going to see a movie or a show.

 

Going to Bedfordshire

If there were ever a uniquely British slang term, it is this one. “Going to Bedforshire” means going to bed at night or really at any time of the day.

“I’ve been up all night, I’m going to Bedfordshire now,” for example.

Bedfordshire is a real place in England, and so we can see that its origin is quite simple in that sense. “Bedfordshire” is just standing in for “bed” here.

 

Kip down

Next we have kip down, which again is definitely a very uniquely British slang phrase.

This one means you are going to sleep, though it could just as much mean you are going for a nap as you are going to bed at the end of the day.

“You’re exhausted, go kip down,” for example.

“Kip” is a British slang term for a nap, so this is where this phrase comes from. beyond that, we don’t really know where either the word “kip” originates or how it came to be “Kip down”.

 

Catch some Zs

Catch some Zs is another great way of saying you’re going to bed in British slang.

It can mean, again, either that you are going to bed at the end of the day or that you’re just going to try and get some sleep somewhere. “I’ll try and catch some Zs before I have to go back out,” for example.

“Zs” were used to represent snoring in a comic strip called Katzenjammer Kids from the early 20th Century.

This became the standard practice of how to draw someone sleeping, and so it caught on in the broader language.

 

Up the wooden hill

Of all the terms on this list, no doubt this one will sound the strangest to unfamiliar ears.

To go up the wooden hill means to go upstairs, particularly to put children to bed.

It can be first found in a very old book of verse from the early 19th Century, so it likely predates that by some time.

The “wooden hill” is, of course, the stairs.

Example in a sentence: “Come on, time to climb up the wooden hill!”

 

Uncle Ned

Any list of British slang would not be complete without a mention of some Cockney rhyming slang.

“Uncle Ned” means bed in Cockney rhyming slang, and so you might say “I’m going to Uncle Ned” to mean you are going to bed.

Though we don’t know when exactly this one came into use, the simple explanation for it is that it is just a word that rhymes with bed!

 

Bo-peep

Another example of Cockney rhyming slang is “Bo-peep” meaning “sleep”.

A Cockney might say that they are “going to Bo-peep” to mean they are going to sleep.

Again, there’s not really much more to it than the fact that it rhymes!

 

Retire

Retire is another one which, while on the face of it might seem quite formal, it is for this very reason that it is used as slang.

Once, to “retire” to bed would have been the standard way of expressing that was what you were doing.

Now, it’s used in a somewhat ironic way by some people.

“I shall retire to my chambers now,” for example. It would be meant as a joke.

 

Check out

Finally, we have “check out”. To check out of something means to leave, and so when you go to bed at the end of the night, you are “checking out”. “I’m too tired, I’ve got to check out,” for example.

This one seems to have come into use fairly recently, although it may first have originated in the early 20th Century as cheap hotels were becoming widely available.

There are obviously plenty of ways in British slang to say you are going to bed, then.

From classics you’ll hear everywhere around the world to peculiarly British slang terms, there’s everything you need to say you’re going to bed.

We all need a way of subtly hinting we are going to bed without ever actually saying it from time to time.

 

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  • Polly Webster

    Founder - @PollyWebster

    Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

    Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

    Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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2 thoughts on “British Slang For Going To Bed (12 Examples!)”

  1. The Wooden Hill is in fact the staircase, not the bed. The full saying is “Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire”.

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