spread like wildfire

1. Disseminate or circulate very quickly, as in The rumor about their divorce spread like wildfire. The noun wildfire means “a raging, rapidly spreading conflagration.” [c. 1800]

Example Sentences

It’s unclear when the video was made, but it emerged and spread like wildfire on social media after a Fox News reporter, citing unnamed sources, said it had triggered a federal probe into the politician.

From Los Angeles Times

"It's frankly ridiculous and insulting that he says they tried to throw a protective ring around care homes when his department's policies caused Covid to spread like wildfire amongst society's most vulnerable loved ones," she said.

From BBC

She quoted a worker at a Durham care home who described how the virus "spread like wildfire".

From BBC

Conspiracy theories, especially about vaccines, spread like wildfire.

From Slate

She said: "They’ve spread like wildfire really because opioids aren’t getting into Europe anymore, so people are making their own which is where the synthetics come in."

From BBC

Related Words

• beset 
• choke 
• deluge 
• inundate 
• invade 
• overflow 
• overwhelm 
• ravage