mile a minute
mile a minute
At a very rapid pace. Taylor was so excited to tell me about her first day at school that she was talking a mile a minute.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
*mile a minute
Fig. very fast. (*Typically: go ~; move ~; talk ~; travel ~.) She talks a mile a minute and is very hard to keep up with.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
mile a minute, a
Very rapidly, as in She was talking a mile a minute about the accident. This expression, alluding to the literal speed of 60 miles per hour, dates from the mid-1900s, when that speed was considered very fast, but it has survived into times of much greater velocity.
See also: mile
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
a mile a minute
If you do something or something happens a mile a minute, you do it or it happens very fast. Claire was a good kid, though she talked a mile a minute and Maggie often felt exhausted when she left. His mind works a mile a minute, constantly full of ideas.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
a mile a minute
very quickly. informalAs a noun, mile a minute is a popular nickname for the quick-growing climbing plant Russian Vine.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
mile a minute, a
Very fast. As one might guess, this term dates only from the days when this literal speed was relatively reasonable. The OED cites its first use in a 1957 issue of Railway Magazine, announcing “a new table of their mile-a-minute runs.” It frequently is used figuratively, as in “He was talking a mile a minute.”
See also: mile
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer