get on the stick

Idioms  

1. Start working, as in I have to get on the stick and start preparing dinner. This synonym for get going or get busy alludes to getting a car going by manipulating the gearshift, or stick. [Slang; early 1900s]

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Example Sentences

“We know we’ve got to get on the stick and do something.”

From New York Times • Aug. 30, 2021

And the history books will write it that way one day, so he better get on the stick.

From Washington Times • Nov. 9, 2014

"We said we know that we're falling behind here, we better get on the stick."

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 23, 2010

"We had to get on the stick on Java," he says.

From Time Magazine Archive

It was time to start picking up the dropped threads, the loose edges, the bits of braggadocio here and there; it was time to get on the stick and start putting serious casework together.

From The Hacker Crackdown, law and disorder on the electronic frontier by Sterling, Bruce