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wildfire

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spread like wildfire

Fig. [for something] to spread rapidly. Rumors spread like wildfire when people are excited. This disease will spread like wildfire when it gets going.

See also: like, spread, wildfire

like wildfire

everywhere very quickly The new dance has caught on like wildfire in all the popular clubs. Scandal spreads like wildfire around this office.

Etymology: based on the literal meaning of wildfire (a fire that burns out of control)

See also: like, wildfire

spread like wildfire

if disease or news spreads like wildfire, it quickly affects or becomes known by more and more people Once one child in the school has become infected, the disease spreads like wildfire. Scandal spreads like wildfire round here.

See also: like, spread, wildfire

spread like wildfire

Disseminate or circulate very quickly, as in The rumor about their divorce spread like wildfire. The noun wildfire means "a raging, rapidly spreading conflagration." [c. 1800]

See also: like, spread, wildfire

like wildfire

Rapidly and intensely: The disease spread like wildfire.

See also: like, wildfire