like a bat out of hell

1. Moving extremely fast, as in She ran down the street like a bat out of hell. This expression presumably alludes to the rapid darting movement of bats and, Charles Earle Funk theorized, their avoidance of such light as might be cast by the fires of hell. [c. 1900] For a synonym, see like greased lightning.

Example Sentences

They undoubtedly gave him even greater publicity and notoriety, helping his solo career to skyrocket like a bat out of hell.

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My wife shot out of the corner like a bat out of hell and leapt from her truck.

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“I jumped in my car and drove like a bat out of hell … jumped in a helicopter and we were flying that day,” Johnson said, recalling risky flights over lava flows.

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“I drove like a bat out of hell,” he said.

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“He ran like a bat out of hell,” The Boston Globe reported at the time.

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Related Words

• expeditiously 
• hastily 
• hurriedly www.thesaurus.com
• immediately 
• instantaneously www.thesaurus.com
• instantly 
• promptly 
• rapidly 
• speedily www.thesaurus.com
• swiftly