English · Idiom Candidate

full speed ahead

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Proceed with a plan or activity as quickly and energetically as possible

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Tiến hành kế hoạch hoặc hoạt động nhanh và mạnh mẽ nhất có thể

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a ship sailing at maximum speed

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

' Full speed ahead, sir! ' called the admiral.

‘ It's full speed ahead for the seasons, and, if I can, I work 12 or 14 hours a day then, because otherwise I can't see myself through the quiet times.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “full speed ahead” mean?

Proceed with a plan or activity as quickly and energetically as possible Literally: a ship sailing at maximum speed

Is “full speed ahead” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.