pay dirt, hit

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, strike pay dirt . Make a valuable discovery or large profit, as in We've been researching the source of that quotation for a month and we finally hit pay dirt in the Library of Congress . This idiom, from the mid-1800s, refers to a miner's finding gold or other precious metals while sifting soil. By the late 1800s it had been transferred to other lucrative discoveries.

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Example Sentences

Getting all huffy and talking about deportation for cooking up lies is the best proof you could ask for that we hit pay dirt.

From Project Gutenberg

I left my number in about ten of the spots he might turn up, and around six o'clock one of them hit pay dirt.

From Project Gutenberg

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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