to spread like wildfire
10
3.0
- idiom
- Informal
- Once the video was posted online, it spread like wildfire, reaching millions within hours.
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Watch on YouTubeStill, the news spread like wildfire and protests quickly erupted.
- Still, the news spread like wildfire and protests quickly erupted.
- This text spread like wildfire throughout Europe.
- Then the accounts a week later of these strange creatures is spreading like wildfire in the headlines.
- And then it it spread like wildfire and suddenly Lionel Shriver's a racist.
- He's got this innovative offense that has spread like wildfire throughout college football in some way, shape or form.
- This entire situation opens up a Pandora's box of speculation, but I'm just not sure anyone counted on this drama spreading like wildfire.
- And we're going it's, I mean, it's obviously spreading like wildfire.
- Well, this year they've just started to spread like wildfire.
- And there's just like all the animals, like man, he just watches spread like wildfire.
Examples
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Still, the news spread like wildfire and protests quickly erupted.
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The news of that incident spread like wildfire with its immediate impact in the city of Lahore.
Academic text (2018) -
This text spread like wildfire throughout Europe.
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The story spread like wildfire in America.
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These things spread like wildfire.
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This will spread like wildfire.
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Democratic Change then spread like wildfire throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
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His story eventually caught the attention of a reporter and spread like wildfire online.
Blog text (13) -
The documents spread like wildfire and they formed the basis for the wave of belief in UFOs that would spread through America in the 1990s.
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Anecdotal stories and panic spread like wildfire across blogs, forums, chat rooms, and social media networks.
Blog text (9)
Synonyms
716
1.6
To become known by many people
75
4.3
To increase very quickly in number or size
63
3.8
To spread very quickly online and reach many people
44
6.8
To spread information or ideas widely so many people know them
32
5.5
To spread out and reach many people or places
23
5.9
Spread ideas, news, or feelings to many people
19
3.4
To become very popular quickly, often online
17
5.7
To spread quickly, get out of control, and cause harm
12
3.7
To become very popular quickly, especially online
7
4.1
Spread quickly among many people
6
4.1
Growing very quickly in size or cost
To spread bad news or rumors very quickly and be hard to stop
Antonyms
How Fast
- Informal
10
3.0
- Texting
63
3.8
716
1.6
30
3.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a direct simile: 'spread' (to disseminate) combined with 'like wildfire' (comparing to a fast-moving, rapidly spreading fire) yields the meaning 'spread very quickly and widely.' The metaphorical mapping is transparent and common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can readily infer the idiom's meaning.
Etymology
The phrase spread like wildfire comes from the image of a small spark in dry grass that becomes a fast-moving wildfire. That's why we use it to say something 'spreads very quickly and widely'.