like greased lightning

Idioms  

1. Also, like a blue streak; like the wind; like blazes. Very fast indeed, as in He climbed that ladder like greased lightning, or She kept on talking like a blue streak, or The children ran like the wind when they heard there'd be free ice cream. The likening of speed to lightning dates from the 1500s, and grease was added in the early 1800s to further accentuate the idea of haste. The first variant, blue streak, also dates from the early 1800s and alludes to something resembling lightning. The wind in the second variant has been a metaphor for swiftness since ancient Roman times. The blazes in the last variant, first recorded in 1925, alludes to fire or lightning.

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Example Sentences

Her crochet hook was racing like greased lightning by then.

From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney

I went down it like greased lightning and came out at the bottom of it and once again I was on the floor.

From "The Witches" by Roald Dahl

"I noticed that those that didn't have cayenne pepper on them were white hot and came like greased lightning," laughed McCarthy.

From Jimmy Kirkland and the Plot for a Pennant by Fullerton, Hugh S.

He'd stop saving the taxpayers of Multiopolis, and take his car, and go like greased lightning for a little sick girl.

From Michael O'Halloran by Stratton-Porter, Gene

Again I sneezed, when off they scampered, disappearing like greased lightning, as our American cousins say, through countless crevices and holes and other openings I had not before perceived.

From Dick Cheveley His Adventures and Misadventures by Groome, William H. C.

Related Words

• quick
• quickly
• rapidly
• soon
• swift
• swiftly