Word.ws English Dictionary

pedal to the metal

pedal to the metal phrase: at maximum speed.

Phrase

pedal to the metal

  1. (idiomatic) At maximum speed.
    • As Quincy recovered from our one-block adrenaline burst, I gunned all 700 horsepower once more. Even with the pedal to the metal, the Exelero's sheer bulk caused a multisecond lag from the twin-turbo-charged V12's wind-up to actual launch.2007 January 24, Sue Callaway, “Jonesing for a Maybach”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Apr 2009
  2. (idiomatic) With maximum effort.
    • Use this energy to make a concerted move, pedal to the metal, on what you've dreamt up while hosting this cosmic power ball.2026 April 4, Vanessa Montgomery, “Your Weekly Horoscope: April 5-11, 2026”, in Glamour.com, via EBSCOhost

Synonyms of pedal to the metal

Forms of pedal to the metal

alternative formpedal to the medal
alternative formeggcorn

Words formed from pedal to the metal

Questions about pedal to the metal

What does pedal to the metal mean?
Pedal to the metal means at maximum speed.
What part of speech is pedal to the metal?
Pedal to the metal is a phrase.

Words near pedal to the metal in the dictionary

  1. pedal steels
  2. pedal stool
  3. pedal stools
  4. pedal stroke
  5. pedal strokes
  6. pedal to the metal
  7. pedal-pusher
  8. pedal-pushers
  9. pedal-stool
  10. pedal-stools
  11. pedalavia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pedal to the metal (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: “pedal to the metal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pedal_to_the_metal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.