brace yourself for impact

Meaning

Literally, this means to physically prepare your body for a crash or collision. Metaphorically, it means to mentally or emotionally prepare yourself for a difficult, shocking, or unpleasant situation that is about to happen. It is often used with a slightly dramatic or humorous tone in everyday conversation.

Examples

• The pilot told the passengers to brace themselves for impact just before the emergency landing.

  The pilot told the passengers to brace themselves for impact just before the emergency landing.

• Brace yourself for impact; the boss is in a terrible mood today.

  Brace yourself for impact; the boss is in a terrible mood today.

• When the tax bills arrive next week, we'll need to brace ourselves for impact.

  When the tax bills arrive next week, we'll need to brace ourselves for impact.

• He saw the bad news coming and braced himself for impact.

  He saw the bad news coming and braced himself for impact.

• Brace yourself for impact before you look at the damage to the car.

  Brace yourself for impact before you look at the damage to the car.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ You should brace for the impact.

  ✓ You should brace yourself for impact.

  The idiom is reflexive ('brace yourself') and usually drops the definite article 'the' before 'impact' in its standard idiomatic form.

• ✗ I braced my mind for the impact of the bad news.

  ✓ I braced myself for the impact of the bad news.

  Use the reflexive pronoun 'myself/yourself' rather than specifying 'my mind' or other body parts when preparing for a situation.

Related Expressions

Practice

• The company is going to announce layoffs tomorrow, so ___.

  💡 Prepare for bad news.

  Show answer

  brace yourself for impact

• As the turbulent weather approached, the flight crew instructed everyone to ___.

  💡 Physically prepare for a rough landing.

  Show answer

  brace themselves for impact