Thursday, April 03, 2014 9:51:21 AM
Burning one just for you
Going LIKE A BAT OUT OF HELL means moving very rapidly, extremely fast. <“He ran down the street like a bat out of hell.”> A bat’s flight tends to be darting rather than smooth, so this dashing about may bear some relation to why the flight of the bat was chosen for this simile for fast flight or movement. A second and perhaps larger contributor is the fact that bats have an aversion to light and the light of the flames of hell would certainly cause them to flee at top speed.
The expression first appeared in the U.S. in 1921 in the novel The Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos. page 67: “We went like a bat out of hell along a good state road.” However, it is said that the expression originated in the Air Force during WW I, likening the flight of fighter planes to that of a bat. The 1925 Soldier and Sailor Words by Fraser & Gibbons defined the expression: “To go like a bat out of hell, to go at extreme high speed (Air Force).” Two other expressions with similar meaning are ‘like a shot’ and ‘like greased lightning.
Going LIKE A BAT OUT OF HELL means moving very rapidly, extremely fast. <“He ran down the street like a bat out of hell.”> A bat’s flight tends to be darting rather than smooth, so this dashing about may bear some relation to why the flight of the bat was chosen for this simile for fast flight or movement. A second and perhaps larger contributor is the fact that bats have an aversion to light and the light of the flames of hell would certainly cause them to flee at top speed.
The expression first appeared in the U.S. in 1921 in the novel The Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos. page 67: “We went like a bat out of hell along a good state road.” However, it is said that the expression originated in the Air Force during WW I, likening the flight of fighter planes to that of a bat. The 1925 Soldier and Sailor Words by Fraser & Gibbons defined the expression: “To go like a bat out of hell, to go at extreme high speed (Air Force).” Two other expressions with similar meaning are ‘like a shot’ and ‘like greased lightning.
If you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
