hell for leather meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

hell for leather

advalso spelled hell-for-leather

Uncommon Less common form of hell-for-leather

A few minutes later I was driving hell for leather to Parel, some six miles out of Bombay, where Colonel Liston was in charge of the government laboratory.1963, Frederick Barnardo, An Active Life, Bodley Head, page 194:
It was one of the pleasures of the country to be able to ride hell for leather in the early morning... .1988, Emma Lange, The Cost of Honor, →ISBN, page 96:

2 more examples

Of course, we were programmers, so we knew how hard it was, and what really impressed us was that this wasn't just smart programming, it was smart maths. Somebody had gone hell for leather making the absolute best that was possible.2003 October 18, Francis Spufford, “Masters of their universe”, in The Guardian:
When Alfie had breathlessly told him that Sarah had gone into labour and was on her way to hospital, he'd dropped the lead rein and headed back hell for leather.2004, Jennifer Marshall, The Christie Legacy, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 290:

hell-for-leather

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.

As fast as possible; recklessly fast.

He rode hell-for-leather to catch up with the stagecoach.
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:

2 more examples

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 23, 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:
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):

Synonyms: like a bat out of hell
Related terms: hell-bent for leather