show a clean pair of heels

Verb

show a clean pair of heels (third-person singular simple present shows a clean pair of heels, present participle showing a clean pair of heels, simple past showed a clean pair of heels, past participle shown a clean pair of heels)

1. (idiomatic) To run away; to make an escape quickly.
   • ‘[...]No, gentlemen; he'll always show ’em a clean pair of heels very early in the scuffle, and sneak away.’1859, Charles Dickens, edited by Richard Maxwell, A Tale of Two Cities, Book the Second, Penguin Classics, published 2003, →ISBN, Chapter XXIV, page 249
   • But in the second column the "Britannia" Pacific , though with one coach less, showed a cleaner pair of heels, [...].1959 March, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 133