Isn’t “Take hits” a well-received English phrase?

I came across the phrase, ‘Take hits’ in the headline of Washington Post article (July 20) titled, ‘Federal workers will take hits in any deal’ which is followed by the following sentence:

“No matter how the debt crisis ends, federal employees will take a double dose of a bitter pill. Even the best-case scenario of Congress and the White House agreeing on a plan to raise the debt ceiling would have federal employees taking a hit through whatever medicine is prescribed for Americans in general, in addition to money-saving measures aimed directly at the federal workforce.”

From the context of the above sentence, I interpreted “take hits’ implies ‘take a hard blow or damage.’ As I was unable to find definition of ‘take hits’ in dictionaries at hand, I checked into online dictionaries, and found that there is no entry of ‘take hits,’ but ‘take a hit’ meaning ‘inhale through the nose’ with one accord in Free English language Dictionary, Audio English net and www. definitions net.

Is my understanding of “take hits” in the sense of ‘get a blow’ right? Why apparently ordinary phrase like ‘take hits’ is registered in neither in ordinary dictionaries nor in online dictionaries, though ‘take a hit’ is registered in online dictionaries under sole definition, ‘inhale through the nose,’ which does not seem to me applicable to the above context?

Your initial instinct that take a hit is equivalent to taking a hard blow or damage is right. It took some digging, but I found the corresponding definition in the Oxford Dictionary:

noun

a verbal attack: I think people will try to take a hit at my credibility

So to figuratively take a hit means that one is being hit by some sort of non-physical attack, usually in the form of a verbal barb. Although this definition doesn't mention it, this phrase is not particular to a verbal attack. Searching for "take a hit" leads to many news articles which refer to the economy "taking a hit"--as long as the object is taking some sort of damage.

The other meaning you found, regarding inhaling via the nose, refers to drug use. Thus people talk about taking bong hits, or a hit of marijuana.