Get the sack means to be dismissed from your job. It implies that it was the employer's decision, usually because of bad behaviour or poor work. The idiom is British and informal. To say who did the firing, use give someone the sack or simply sack someone.
When would you say get the sack?
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get the sack + for + noun/-ing; give someone the sack; be sacked
- If you keep coming in late, you'll get the sack.
- He got the sack for posting rude comments about his clients online.
- The restaurant owner gave two waiters the sack after the health inspection.
What changed
First versionIf Tom misses another deadline, he'll get a sack.
RevisionIf Tom misses another deadline, he'll get the sack.
With a, the sentence sounds like “he'll receive a bag”, as if it were about an object. When sack means losing your job, it always takes the: get the sack, give someone the sack. Only the article was corrected.
In American English, get fired is more common in this sense, and in formal writing people use be dismissed. And don't confuse it with quit: I quit means “I left the job myself”, while I got the sack means “I was fired”.
Your turn
After Mark was caught sleeping at his desk for the third time, his manager called him in, and he ___.
Show the answer
got the sack — Mark was caught sleeping at his desk three times and called in by his manager, so this is about losing his job: got the sack. Hit the sack means “go to bed” and has nothing to do with a talk with the boss.
Tell a real or made-up story about someone who lost their job. Say why they were fired and what they did next.
My old neighbour got the sack for arguing with customers, so he opened his own small bike shop.
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