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Glite Dictionary
to drive like crazy

to drive like crazy

6.0
To make a car go very fast and in a dangerous way
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : conducir como loco
  • On Monday, her car wouldn't start, and Anita spent all day renting a wreck and driving like crazy to the hospital two hours away; at five, she arrived, and at five, her father wasn't dead.

Examples

  • They were driving like crazy to get to the amusement park before it closed.

  • - He was driving like crazy.

    Dancer in the Dark (2000)

  • And driving like crazy to the hospital.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Luther was driving like crazy through the city.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • He was driving like crazy on the highway to catch the concert.

  • The driver kept driving like crazy during the chase, ignoring all traffic signals.

Synonyms

to put the pedal to the metal
vsto drive like crazy
  • Informal
7 6.3

To drive or work as fast as possible, often to finish something

is reckless high speed with danger to others rather than controlled fast driving
to hoon
vsto drive like crazy
  • Australian
1 9.9

To drive dangerously or noisily to show off

is about reckless high speed that endangers rather than merely seeking attention
to drive like a hoon
vsto drive like crazy
  • Offensive
9.9

To drive in a very dangerous way that puts other people at risk

is about very high reckless speed that harms others rather than showmanship

Antonyms

to slow
957 1.0

Make something move or happen at a lower speed

How Fast

high-speed
100 3.2
to drive like crazy
  • Informal
6.0
steady pace
5 2.7
slow lane
1 2.7

Surface Forms

drive like crazy infinitive

Morphology

drive + like + crazy

The phrase is compositionally interpretable: 'like' marks manner and 'crazy' conveys an extreme or mad way of doing something, so a learner can infer 'drive in a very fast or reckless way' from the parts. This colloquial intensifier pattern (like + adjective/adverb) is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will likely understand the meaning.

Etymology

The phrase drive like crazy shows the image of someone who drives as if they are crazy, going very fast, swerving, and ignoring the rules. So it means 'to drive very fast or in a dangerous way'.