Dictionary

hell-for-leather en · ADV

Etymology

An early reference is from 1888 in "The Gadsbys" by Rudyard Kipling, referring to the effect on the leather of a saddle (or perhaps a crop) of riding a horse as fast as possible.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) As fast as possible; recklessly fast.
   • Captain Mafflin: Leave him alone. It's not bad enough to croak over. Here, Gaddy, take the chit to Bingle and ride hell-for-leather. It'll do you good. I can't go. 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Valley of the Shadow—Knowing Good and Evil”, in The Story of the Gadsbys:
   • He rode hell-for-leather to catch up with the stagecoach.
   • You see, the temptation is to stick at one. The temptation is to assume that the others will go hell-for-leather trying to accumulate as many pink ladies as possible and eventually have the green egg. 2019 June 19, “This is Trevor.” (12:40 from the start), in Taskmaster, season 8, episode 7, spoken by a contestant (Paul Sinha):
   • Some of the commissioning decisions that they have taken look like they have not paid sufficient regard to the development of services in the community. This hell-for-leather search for abstinence - they thought that they could eradicate the drug problem within prisons by running a few programmes and detox units ... the first tranche of service development was very much based around that. 1999 December 14, Karen Duke, quoting the director of a drug agency, “Containing contradictions: the development of prison drugs policy in England since 1980.”, in Middlesex University Research Repository, archived from the original on 21 Mar 2026:

Forms

Relateds

hell-bent for leather

Synonyms

like a bat out of hell

Translations (11)

hu szélvészként (as fast as possible; recklessly fast) · hu mint a villám (as fast as possible; recklessly fast) · hu szélvészgyorsan (as fast as possible; recklessly fast) · ru стремгла́в (as fast as possible; recklessly fast) · hu mint a szélvész (as fast as possible; recklessly fast) · hu észvesztő/eszeveszett sebességgel (as fast as possible; recklessly fast) · es a matacaballo (as fast as possible; recklessly fast) · ru сломя́ го́лову (as fast as possible; recklessly fast) · hu lóhalálában (as fast as possible; recklessly fast) · pl na złamanie karku (as fast as possible; recklessly fast) · nb fort som faen (as fast as possible; recklessly fast)