Step Ambulance I Time One’s In The Loop 669 Hurry Mother

1. Mother was late for a doctor’s appointment and the children were slow getting into the car. “Step on it!” she snapped. “We’re late.”
2. As the ambulance left for the hospital with my sick father in the back, I asked the ambulance driver to step on it. I wanted him to waste no time getting to the hospital.

Synonyms: shake a leg; get a move on

Antonyms: hold (one’s) horses; keep (one’s) shirt on

The expression is often used when the speaker is annoyed or short-tempered, as in sentence 1, and probably stems from the idea of pressing down hard on the gas pedal to make a car go faster.