Meaning of Idiom ‘A Mile A Minute’
A mile a minute means very fast or rapidly. 1Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms]. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.,2Ayto, John. Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010.,3Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010.
Examples of Use
“My son was so excited about the award his science teacher gave him he was talking a mile a minute.”
“Some kid just came through here on a motorbike going a mile a minute. He’s gonna get himself killed!”
“A tornado came through last night. It passed overhead but I was so scared. My heart was going a mile a minute.”
Origin
Used since the mid-1900s, this idiom derives from a time when traveling a mile a minute, or 60 miles per hour, was considered extremely fast. In fact, this speed was once considered impossible for human beings to travel without being injured or killed. Although today’s vehicles can travel much faster than this, the idiom has survived. 4Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms]. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.
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Sources
| 1, 4. | ↲ | Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms]. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. |
| 2. | ↲ | Ayto, John. Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010. |
| 3. | ↲ | Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010. |