Forum: english.stackexchange.com
Tags: <meaning><phrases>
Title: What does "hit me like a two-by-four" mean?
Question: What does this sentence mean?   This observation hit me like a two-by-four   Source .

Answers:
sents: text: 2×4: Image courtesy of Wikipedia .
text: Edit:
text: Wikipedia has since corrected itself that this is indeed a 2×6, but you get the idea.
text: Oh, and the sentence as a whole means that the observation was a big surprise or a great shock; an aha experience or a eureka moment ; an eye-opener .
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/300/RegDwigнt
score: 20
sents: text: A two by four is a common format for a piece of wood : A length of sawn wood of cross section 2 inches by 4 inches, most often employed as structural framing lumber (dimension or dimensional lumber).
text: "It hit me like a two-by-four" means that you've been hit pretty hard.
text: In this context, the author uses it as a simile to convey his state of shock after reading the analysis he quoted.
text: He felt that it explained so well why Asians were often stereotyped as good in science and math that it stunned him.
text: He explains this further down the page:
text: I hadn't known about the 1965 Act, and its existence and the above analysis just instantly explained so much so well and without reference to Asians somehow being magically different
text: In other words, he was really surprised by the quality of the explanation.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/3711/Borror0
score: 9
sents: text: From Word Reference forums : "Two-by-four" is a standard size ofwood used in the UK building trade.
text: So it means a piece of wood with sides of two inches and four inches.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/127/Mehper C. Palavuzlar
score: 2
sents: text: This may have derived from the story about how to handle Mules.
text: "First" (clobbering mule with 2x4), "you have to get their attention."
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/597/MickeyfAgain_BeforeExitOfSO
score: 2
sents: text: Expression comes from a very old joke: about a farmer with a stubbron mule who would not go forward or backward let alone respond to owners comand.
text: So the old man picks up a 2x4 and smacks the mule right between the eyes.
text: Then the mule responded to command.
text: Onlookers were outraged that the man punished the animal harshly.
text: The farmer explained that "first he had to get the mules attention".
text: I suspect over the years people have become more sensitive to this type of 'animal abus jokes' and it has died a just death, the source of this saying , lost.
answer_details: author: english.stackexchange.com/users/312172/Marie Terrell
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
The sentence as a whole means that he was really surprised by the quality of the explanation. A two-by-four is a common format for a piece of wood and "It hit me like a two-by-four" means that you've been hit pretty hard.
The sentence means someone is shocked or surprised. The reference to a "two by four" is to a piece of wood to convey being hit by it. Some believe it is derived from a story about a man handling a mule which he punished harshly with a piece of wood and by analogy conveys the sense of shock.
The sentence as a whole means that he was really surprised by the quality of the explanation. A two-by-four is a common format for a piece of wood and "It hit me like a two-by-four" means that you've been hit pretty hard.
It hit me like a two-by-four means that the observation was a big surprise or an "eye opener". I can mean that you have been hit very hard.
"It hit me like a two-by-four" means that you've been hit pretty hard.  It means that the observation was a big surprise or a great shock; a eureka moment ; an  eye-opener. It is used as a simile to convey a state of shock.
This phrase means that something was a great shock, in this case, an observation.