Hell Bent for Leather

[NEKS]

How many of you folks have heard this saying and how did it originate. Dad used to say it once in a while, especially if I was plowing corn and had the fenders down and going slow. "Don't go hell bent for leather and cover up the corn".

 

[JayinNY]

I think it's a gay term, Judas Priest comes to mind!

 

[Royse]

I heard it many times as a kid, from Dad, Granddad and farmers.
Never gave it much thought but I always assumed it originated
from an ornery bovine. They were hell bent to be leather.

WikiPedia, however, disagrees with me.

 

[Steve@Advance]

I used to hear it as a kid, not so much now.

Always though it meant someone being very determined to accomplish something, usually in a dangerous, reckless, hurried way.

Doing something they shouldn't be doing and not realizing it.

 

[Janicholson]

I didn't read the Wiki yet but I was brought up to believe it was rationale for the dad getting out the leather strap. Jim

 

[Donald in MN]

seems like it was in an old theme song or a line in an old western a long time ago maybe Rawhide

 

[Glen SW Wi]

From the old cowboy days. Sitting in the saddle and going as fast as you can.
Means going fast in whatever you are doing.

 

[ss55]

Rawhide?

 

[mj]

(quoted from post at 21:03:17 02/14/17) I think it's a gay term, Judas Priest comes to mind!

Naw - The term : 'Hell bent for leather' predates 'gay' as now used, and the Judas Priest you're talking about by many, many, years! 8)

 

[BillinCentralMO]

That phrase does appear in the theme song for Rawhide. "Through wind and stormy weather , hellbent for leather .... "

 

[2underage]

It is just one of those old sayings whose origins have been lost in time. I am in my eighties and I heard that term when I was young. There are some questions that have no answer.

 

[Mike M]

I have not heard it that way.

"hell bent for election" (or lection ? ) is the way I have heard it.

 

[paul]

I didn't check this thread yesterday, but thought it was an interesting title for Valentine's Day.......

But I would have turned 50 shades - of red - mentioning it.....



Paul

 

[Hay hay hay]

Or like a "rawhide bra"....headem' up and movem' out!

 

[Bob in SD]

Steve's definition is the way it was used when I was growing up.

 

[4wdtom]

Always liked "Rawhide", a few months back we got the whole series on DVD. It's great to watch.

I have heard both the "election" and "leather" version of the expression. The use made the term seem to mean going fast or fast and hard. No idea how they came about.

 

[curtkeiser]

(quoted from post at 20:01:02 02/14/17) How many of you folks have heard this saying and how did it originate. Dad used to say it once in a while, especially if I was plowing corn and had the fenders down and going slow. "Don't go hell bent for leather and cover up the corn".

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.
Hell-bent for leather - Idioms by The Free Dictionary

 

[Goose]

I've heard it, and used it, both ways.

I always assumed "hell bent for leather" originated back when saddle horses were the primary means of personal transportation. Seems I've heard an expression, "hit the leather" referring to crawling into the saddle and going somewhere.

Don't know about "hell bent for election".

 

[Super51]

May have originated during the Pony Express day's,rideing hell bent for leather to get the mail throuh!

 

[GVSII]

(quoted from post at 05:37:12 02/15/17) I have not heard it that way.

"hell bent for election" (or lection ? ) is the way I have heard it.

Yup, thats what I always heard too.

 

[plainview]

The earliest use of it I know of (I'm not an authority) is in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment's song "Hit the Leather and Ride" from 1903:

We're gonna "Hit the Leather and Ride", take it all in our stride, "Hit the Leather and Ride" all the way,--
And though we're glad to know the Infantry's behind us--
They'll have to eat Cavalry dust to find us--
Let every son of a gallopin' yank jump in a saddle or tank, "Hit the Leather and Ride" all the way,--
Tho' some are mechanized, you'll regognize the outfit,--
We're ridin' hell bent for leather today,--
We're ridin hell bent for leather today.

Toujours Pret!!!

 

[john *.?-!.* cub owner]

When I was young, a long time ago, Hell bent for leather meant trying to get there in a hurry, no matter what the consequences. I always heard it referred to a rider bending low over a horses neck to reduce wind resistance and avoid low tree limbs etc. while spurring or whipping the horse to it's maximum speed.

 

[JOCCO]

Don't hear it much today also used to be going like a bat out of he double L!!