Meaning & use
go pound sand
Last updated
Meaning
phraseidiominformalAmericandisapproving
A rude way of telling someone to go away or stop bothering you, because what they want will not happen.
Grammar: Used as an order or retort, usually to one person: Go pound sand!
Patterns
- tell someone to go pound sand
- someone can go pound sand
When he asked me to cover his shift for the fifth time, I told him to go pound sand.
The company told the angry customer to go pound sand and ended the call.
If she thinks I will apologize, she can go pound sand.
Common combinations
- tell someone to go pound sand
- He told his landlord to go pound sand after the surprise fee.
- can go pound sand
- If they want free work, they can go pound sand.
- go and pound sand
- You can go and pound sand for all I care.
- politely told to go pound sand
- The salesman was politely told to go pound sand.
Synonyms and how they differ
- get lost
- Get lost is a general, shorter brush-off, whereas go pound sand adds a sense that the request is pointless.
- take a hike
- Take a hike simply means leave, with less of a feeling of contempt for the request.
- go jump in a lake
- Go jump in a lake is milder and sounds more old-fashioned and playful.
Commonly confused: go pound sand or go fly a kite?
go pound sand vs go fly a kite
This is a similar but gentler American idiom for dismissing someone. Go pound sand sounds harsher.
Practice
Which reply most clearly tells a pushy caller that his demand will be refused rudely?
Choose one answer.
Go pound sand is a rude dismissal. The other options are polite or neutral and do not reject him in an insulting way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “go pound sand”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.