Hell-for-leather
[hel-fer-leth -er] /ˈhɛl fərˈlɛð ər/ Informal.
adjective
1.
characterized by reckless determination or breakneck speed:
The sheriff led the posse in a hell-for-leather chase.
adverb
2.
in a hell-for-leather manner; hellbent:
motorcycles roaring hell-for-leather down the turnpike.
adverb
Rapidly and energetically; all-out, flat out: Frank and Pat had gone hell-for-leather over this territory
[1889+; origin unknown; perhaps related to British dialect phrases go hell for ladder, hell falladerly, hell faleero, and remaining mysterious even if so, although the leather would then be a very probable case of folk etymology with a vague sense of the leather involved in riding tack]
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