greased lightning

noun

Something incredibly fast (now mainly used in comparison: like or faster than greased lightning).

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Meanings

noungreased lightning (uncountable)
  1. uncountableSomething incredibly fast (now mainly used in comparison: like or faster than greased lightning).

    And off he pops like greased lightning.

    1922, James Joyce, Ulysses
    4 more examples

    We find there quite seriously the monstrous hyperboles of swallowing a camel, of having a wooden beam in the eye, of a camel's going through the eye of a needle, of heaping coals of fire on the head; all well enough as jokes, like the description of the Green Mountain road so steep that "greased lightning could not go down it without the breeching on".

    1840, American Philosophical Society, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge. Vol. XVIII. July 1878 to March 1880

    He rode his own horse, Greased Lightning, and won the Garrison cup at Quebec races.

    [1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Sentimental and Otherwise”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 104

    You have to take your hat off to them. They've moved like greased lightning. I should have remembered about them. Slippery as a 'barrel load of eels' they are.

    2006, Mike Lloyd, Only the Gods Decide

    I got on that computer faster than greased lightning and sent him an email.

    2006, Kerri Pomarolli, If I'm Waiting on God, Then What Am I Doing in a Christian Chatroom?: Confessions of a Do-It-Yourself Single

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
cursoryprecipitantspeedyzippy

Origin

Believed to come from the observation that greased machinery tends to run faster, and the notion that if a lightning strike (the fastest normally observed movement) could be greased, it might move even faster. Originally US usage, but soon well known in UK due to Thackeray's use in 1848 (see cite).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Czech jako namydlený blesk
  • jako namydlený bleskSomething incredibly fast
Danish smurt lyn
  • smurt lynSomething incredibly fast
Finnish rasvattu salama
  • rasvattu salamaSomething incredibly fast
German geölter Blitz, wie der geölte Blitz
  • geölter BlitzSomething incredibly fast
  • wie der geölte BlitzSomething incredibly fast
Malay lipas kudung
  • lipas kudungSomething incredibly fast
Norwegian Bokmål oljet lyn, olja lyn
  • oljet lynSomething incredibly fast
  • olja lynSomething incredibly fast
Polish błyskawiczny
  • błyskawicznySomething incredibly fast
Swedish oljad blixt
  • oljad blixtSomething incredibly fast
Cite this entry
APA

greased lightning. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/greased%20lightning

MLA

“greased lightning.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/greased%20lightning. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “greased lightning,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/greased%20lightning.

Source: greased lightning on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.