Fig: to retire, to cease working, competing, etc.

After ten successful years, the boxer decided to hang up his gloves to look after his family business

Dopo dieci anni di brillante carriera sportiva, il pugile ha deciso di attaccare i guanti al chiodo e di dedicarsi alla propria azienda familiare

She's been a great ballerina, but she's beginning to feel her age, therefore she decided to hang up her dancing shoes

È stata una grande danzatrice classica, ma l'età comincia a farsi sentire e quindi ha deciso di appendere le scarpette al chiodo

After the last serious injury Victor thought he'd better hang up his skis and take up bridge

Dopo l'ultimo grave incidente, Vittorio ha pensato bene di appendere gli sci al chiodo e di dedicarsi al bridge

The saying goes back to the ancient custom of gladiators who, after being freed from the duty of fighting, offered their weapons to the god Hercules by hanging them on a wall of a temple dedicated to him. See Horace, Book I, Epistle 1:
… Vejanius, armis Herculis ad postem fixit, latet abditus agro.
(... Veian, after hanging his weapons on the door of the temple of Hercules, lives in hiding in the countryside.)
But, actually, it could also be a simple generalization from the expression “to hang up one's shoes (or spikes)” meaning “to retire from baseball”