fourth gear
Meanings
noun
- The fourth of the available gears in a transmission or other gearbox.
- A maximal level of effort.
Word forms
Etymology
The figurative sense reflects that in some times and places, fourth gear was the highest gear that a car could achieve; compare French en quatrième vitesse.
Synonyms
Related words
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.