(colloquial) high speed or
efficiency An
organization was formed at that
time of a number of people and as long as I could keep my
personality in high
gear, why, I could dominate it, but organizationally it was not under my
control.
-How We Have Addressed the Problem of the Mind (4 July 1957) a
state of maximum activity,
energy or
force. Now probably, just to get off in high
gear hereTso the taxi cabs won't
run up too big a
bill out there this evening...
- Study Gradients and Nomenclature (6 Aug. 64) (colloquial) high speed or
efficiency.
top speed; full activity.
a
state of maximum speed or intense
energy, activity, etc. This
phrase is an allusion to the gears of an automobile which allow it to operate at varying rates of speed. When a vehicle is in high
gear, it operates within its highest rates of travel, where in low
gear it moves much more slowly.