Word.ws English Dictionary

get the lead out

get the lead out verb: to go faster; to hurry up.

Verb

get the lead out (third-person singular simple present gets the lead out, present participle getting the lead out, simple past got the lead out, past participle (UK) got the lead out or (US) gotten the lead out)

  1. (dated, idiomatic) To go faster; to hurry up.

Forms of get the lead out

third-person singular presentgets the lead out
present participlegetting the lead out
pastgot the lead out
past participle UKgot the lead out
past participle USgotten the lead out

Origin of get the lead out

A shortened form of get the lead out of one's shoes (or one's pants). Here, lead refers to a very heavy metal, thus the expression means roughly to get rid of whatever is slowing one down and hurry up.

Questions about get the lead out

What does get the lead out mean?
Get the lead out means to go faster; to hurry up.
What part of speech is get the lead out?
Get the lead out is a verb.
What is the past tense of get the lead out?
The past tense of get the lead out is got the lead out.

Words near get the lead out in the dictionary

  1. get the hang of
  2. get the hint
  3. get the idea
  4. get the job done
  5. get the last laugh
  6. get the lead out
  7. get the meaning
  8. get the memo
  9. get the nod
  10. get the noggin joggin'
  11. get the picture

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: get the lead out (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “get the lead out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/get_the_lead_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.