"like gangbusters" meaning in English

See like gangbusters in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: En-au-like gangbusters.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: From the American true crime radio drama Gang Busters (1936–1957), which opened abruptly with loud sound effects of police sirens, machine guns, etc. Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} like gangbusters, {{en-PP}} like gangbusters
  1. (simile, colloquial, originally US) Vigorously, rapidly, zealously, or forcibly; in a manner which has considerable impact. Wikipedia link: Gang Busters Tags: colloquial
    Sense id: en-like_gangbusters-en-prep_phrase-jeQdi9E6 Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, English similes

Download JSON data for like gangbusters meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "From the American true crime radio drama Gang Busters (1936–1957), which opened abruptly with loud sound effects of police sirens, machine guns, etc.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "like gangbusters",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "like gangbusters",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English similes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1954 December 9, Hedda Hopper, “Chandler, Baxter 'Spoilers' Costars”, in Los Angeles Times, page B12",
          "text": "\"Put an actress in knock-out clothes and she'll come through like gangbusters.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 July 14, Paul Lilly, “Chromebooks are selling like gangbusters, but the party could be coming to an end”, in PC Gamer",
          "text": "Chromebooks are selling like gangbusters, but the party could be coming to an end [title]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 January 7, Richard Lawson, “The Best-Picture Race: Sure Things, Crowd-Pleasers, and the Late-Breaking Potential Upsets”, in Vanity Fair",
          "text": "Wearing its politics heavier on its sleeve is Being the Ricardos, a late-breaking Amazon Studios film from Aaron Sorkin that played like gangbusters at industry screenings in New York and Los Angeles.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Vigorously, rapidly, zealously, or forcibly; in a manner which has considerable impact."
      ],
      "id": "en-like_gangbusters-en-prep_phrase-jeQdi9E6",
      "links": [
        [
          "Vigorously",
          "vigorously"
        ],
        [
          "rapidly",
          "rapidly"
        ],
        [
          "zealously",
          "zealously"
        ],
        [
          "forcibly",
          "forcibly"
        ],
        [
          "impact",
          "impact"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile, colloquial, originally US) Vigorously, rapidly, zealously, or forcibly; in a manner which has considerable impact."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Gang Busters"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-like gangbusters.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/59/En-au-like_gangbusters.ogg/En-au-like_gangbusters.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/En-au-like_gangbusters.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "like gangbusters"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From the American true crime radio drama Gang Busters (1936–1957), which opened abruptly with loud sound effects of police sirens, machine guns, etc.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "like gangbusters",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "like gangbusters",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "English similes",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1954 December 9, Hedda Hopper, “Chandler, Baxter 'Spoilers' Costars”, in Los Angeles Times, page B12",
          "text": "\"Put an actress in knock-out clothes and she'll come through like gangbusters.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 July 14, Paul Lilly, “Chromebooks are selling like gangbusters, but the party could be coming to an end”, in PC Gamer",
          "text": "Chromebooks are selling like gangbusters, but the party could be coming to an end [title]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 January 7, Richard Lawson, “The Best-Picture Race: Sure Things, Crowd-Pleasers, and the Late-Breaking Potential Upsets”, in Vanity Fair",
          "text": "Wearing its politics heavier on its sleeve is Being the Ricardos, a late-breaking Amazon Studios film from Aaron Sorkin that played like gangbusters at industry screenings in New York and Los Angeles.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Vigorously, rapidly, zealously, or forcibly; in a manner which has considerable impact."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Vigorously",
          "vigorously"
        ],
        [
          "rapidly",
          "rapidly"
        ],
        [
          "zealously",
          "zealously"
        ],
        [
          "forcibly",
          "forcibly"
        ],
        [
          "impact",
          "impact"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "simile",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(simile, colloquial, originally US) Vigorously, rapidly, zealously, or forcibly; in a manner which has considerable impact."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Gang Busters"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-like gangbusters.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/59/En-au-like_gangbusters.ogg/En-au-like_gangbusters.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/En-au-like_gangbusters.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "like gangbusters"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-22 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (fc4f0c7 and c937495). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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