in the fast lane
6
6.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
a toda velocidad
- You're slow for someone in the fast lane.
- life in the fast lane
- live in the fast lane
Dogs live in the fast lane and maybe they know it.
- Dogs live in the fast lane and maybe they know it.
Examples
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After moving to the city, she quickly found herself in the fast lane, attending parties and events every weekend.
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You already know I'm in the fast lane from Helly to Tokyo.
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And here I was thinking you live life in the fast lane.
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Life in the fast lane get too much for you?
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We're in the fast lane now.
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We're in the fast lane.
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That means appealing to the little man who dreams of making it in the fast lane.
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You're missing life in the fast lane, aren't you?
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Many young people today want to live in the fast lane, enjoying all the thrills and adventures that come with it.
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His job at the startup meant he was in the fast lane, working long hours on exciting projects that changed every day.
Synonyms
11
7.4
Lead a life full of risk and excitement by doing dangerous things
7
5.8
A very busy, exciting life that often brings risk and pressure
5
5.2
A way of spending time that is exciting, fast, and often risky
1
4.2
A way of living with constant activity and little time to rest
Antonyms
How Fast-Paced
- Informal
6
6.4
26
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'fast' (quick) and 'lane' (a road lane), so a learner can grasp the concrete spatial meaning, but the common idiomatic sense 'living a life of excitement, risk, or rapid pace' is a metaphorical extension of that image. This figurative shift is not fully predictable from the constituents without exposure or cultural knowledge, so it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
In the fast lane may come from roads. On a highway the fast lane is where cars go the quickest, so being 'in the fast lane' means living a quick, exciting, and often risky life.