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like a bat out of hell. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
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Pronunciation
Prepositional phrase
like a bat out of hell
- (simile) With crazy or excessive intensity or speed.
- Synonym: hell-for-leather
He came tearing around the corner like a bat out of hell and nearly ran us over.
1904, The Texas Civil Appeals Reports: Cases Argued and Determined in the Courts of Civil Appeals of the State of Texas, volume 32, page 594:Appellee testified that "the train came through like a bat out of hell," and while this language is probably highly figurative, it nevertheless might tend to indicate that the train was running at a very high speed.
1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 3, in The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 38:The Paranoids cast off, backed the Godzilla II out from the pier, turned and with a concerted whoop took off like a bat out of hell, nearly sending Di Presso over the fantail.
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