Englishtalk a blue streak
Meaning: To talk fast and at length.
Example: “The tour guide talked a blue streak the whole bus ride.”
Origin: American, documented from around 1830, with an early recorded use in a Kentucky publication that same year. "Blue streak" for something extremely fast draws directly on the visual image of a lightning bolt — a flash of light and color moving faster than the eye can properly track, gone almost as soon as it appears. A less commonly cited rival theory instead points to the blue-tailed skink, a genuinely fast-moving lizard whose quick, darting motion reportedly left onlookers with little more than a blur of blue where its tail had been. Either image serves the same purpose: describing speech coming so rapidly and continuously that a listener can barely keep pace with it, exactly the way lightning or a fleeing lizard outpaces the eye.
More English idioms
- talk to someone like a Dutch uncle To give someone frank, firm advice, as a caring relative would.
- tall order Something difficult to accomplish.
- tan someone's hide To spank a child's bottom as punishment.
- through thick and thin In good times and bad times; steadfastly and loyally.
- throw down the gauntlet To challenge someone to fight or argue.
- throw the book at someone To give someone the harshest penalty or punishment allowed by law, or to impose any sever…
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