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hell-bent for leather. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
hell-bent for leather, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
hell-bent for leather in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Apparently a blend of hell-bent + hell-for-leather, though sometimes said to have been initially applied to animals which behaved poorly as if they were bent on being turned into leather.
Adverb
hell-bent for leather (not comparable)
- (Behaving) determinedly recklessly, in a manner that lacks restraint.
2003, Edward Landers, Smooth, →ISBN, page 510:[...] his Supply Officer was hell bent for leather to torpedo his tour as the Commanding Officer and wanted explanations, or at least reassurances.
2013, Clem Martini, One Hundred Stories for One Hundred Years, →ISBN, page 52:She had been through several programs, to no avail; nothing worked, she was hell-bent for leather, she was intent on hurting herself.
- Synonym of hell-for-leather (“very fast”)
2009, Yay Panlilio, The Crucible: An Autobiography by Colonel Yay, Filipina American Guerrilla, Rutgers University Press, →ISBN:“Gosh!” said Marking. “Where the hell did the Japs get that? [...Was that] a Jap plane? God damn, it was fast.” And I agreed, “It was hell-bent for leather some place.”
- Synonym of hell-bent (“(recklessly) determined”)
2000, Angus Wynn, Mojave Fringe, →ISBN, page 95:It had been quite some piece of road from an eastern region of Arizona to SOD, but Jethro was hell-bent for leather. His desire for a meeting with Zelda Klemp had taken him over. He'd been driving since late the previous night ...
2006, Jeanne Elizabeth Siphron, Fit to be crazy: living with lithium and manic depression, →ISBN:I was determined not to be a back seat driver. I said nothing. I waited patiently for her to stop hugging the berm to keep distance from fast moving traffic. I waited for three thousand miles. She was hell bent for leather to get to our destination, ...