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leather-lunged
(used before a noun) Having an extremely or inordinately loud or strong voice, as of someone with very robust lungs. Despite her petite frame, the leather-lunged lead singer was able to shake the audience with her soulful outpourings.
as ever trod shoe-leather
As ever walked the earth; as ever lived. You're as talented a baseball player as ever trod shoe-leather!
hell-bent for leather
Inf. moving or behaving recklessly; riding a horse fast and recklessly. They took off after the horse thief, riding hell-bent for leather. Here comes the boss. She's not just angry; she's hell-bent for leather.
*tough as an old boot
and *tough as old (shoe) leather 1. [of meat] very tough. (*Also: as ~.) This meat is tough as an old boot. Bob couldn't eat the steak. It was as tough as an old boot.
2. [of someone] very strong willed. (*Also: as ~.) When Brian was lost in the mountains, his friends did not fear for him; they knew he was tough as leather. My English teacher was as tough as an old boot.
3. [of someone] not easily moved by feelings such as pity. (*Also: as ~.) She doesn't care. She's as tough as old shoe leather. He was born tough as an old boot and has only grown more rigid.
go hell for leather
(informal) to go somewhere or do something very quickly He was going hell for leather to get to the supermarket before it closed.
be as tough as old boots
also be as tough as nails if someone is as tough as old boots, they are very strong and not easily injured 'Do you think Grandad will ever recover?' 'Of course, he's as tough as old boots.'
be as tough as old boots
(British, American & Australian) also be as tough as shoe leather (American) if food is as tough as old boots, it is difficult to cut or to eat That steak I had was as tough as old boots.
hell-bent for leather
Moving recklessly fast, as in Out the door she went, hell-bent for leather. The use of hell-bent in the sense of "recklessly determined" dates from the first half of the 1800s. Leather alludes to a horse's saddle and to riding on horseback; this colloquial expression may be an American version of the earlier British army jargon hell for leather, first recorded in 1889.
leather or feather
n. a choice of beef or chicken for a meal on an airplane. (Contrived.) What do the victims get today? Oh, yes, it’s leather or feather.
hell-bent for leather
Moving rapidly and with determination. “Hell” in this case strengthens the word “bent,” which means a direct route (although it sounds as though it should mean the opposite). “Leather” refers either to a saddle or to a whip used to urge a horse to move faster, or perhaps items. “Hell for leather” meaning “all deliberate haste” was a popular phrase in itself. Among a number of variants is “hell-bent for election,” said to have originated with the 1840 Maine gubernatorial race and appearing in an 1899 Stephen Crane story: “One puncher racin' his cow-pony hell-bent-for-election down Main Street.” Others are “hell-bent for breakfast,” “for Sunday,” and “for Georgia.”