full speed ahead

Interjection

1. (usually) A command to move forward at maximum speed.
   • Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!
   • We had advanced a hundred yards, perhaps, when our first danger confronted us. Just ahead was a sharp right-angle turn in the tunnel. I could see the river's flotsam hurtling against the rocky wall upon the left as it was driven on by the mighty current, and I feared for the safety of the U-33 in...1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor...

Noun

full speed ahead (uncountable)

1. (usually) Maximum speed on a ship.
   • Then he gave it full speed ahead, and shot us into the inlet.
2. (idiomatic) Maximum effort without reservations or delay.
   • We got the OK on the conversion project. It's full speed ahead.

Adverb

full speed ahead (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) With maximum effort, without reservations or delay.
   • He charged full speed ahead into his studies.

Adjective

full speed ahead (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) Unhesitant.
   • The company's full speed ahead approach to product development would ultimately be its downfall.
   • I was always so busy and full-speed ahead that I didn't take any time out to really listen to God.2009, Shattered, →ISBN, page 129