mile-a-minuteadj.n.

1883 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 46 560 As the favourable side of a gradient can never raise much speed above, while the unfavourable side may reduce it very much below, 60 miles an hour, we can see why ‘a mile a minute’ standard is too high for a country like England.

1913 Bulletin (San Francisco) 2 Apr. 19/5 A hit..which was headed for left field at a mile a minute pace.

1917 P. G. Wodehouse in Vanity Fair Feb. 49/3 Another weak but fairly amusing play is ‘Mile-a-Minute Kendall’, at the Lyceum.

1957 Railway Mag. Nov. 752/2 In view of the Eastern, North Eastern and Scottish changes, a new table of their mile-a-minute runs for the winter appears here.

1974 Amer. Econ. Rev. 64 375/1 Metroliners average 75 miles per hour between end-points while conventional trains approach a mile-a-minute average.

1994 B. A. Staples Parallel Time vi. 85 That meant a short jaunt west,..where the steps teemed with big families, and Puerto Ricans spoke mile-a-minute Spanish.

1975 Reader's Digest Illustr. Guide Gardening 152/2 The most vigorous member of this genus, Polygonum baldschuanicum, is commonly known as Russian vine or mile-a-minute vine. It grows 10–15 ft a year and can rapidly cover a wall, fence, pergola, arch or small tree.

1985 Atlanta (Georgia) Constit. 30 June h. 1/4 Called the ‘mile-a-minute vine’, kudzu is ideal for retaining soil erosion but quickly outgrows its welcome.

1990 Plants & Gardens Autumn 75/3 The latter is a wonderful plant for covering unsightly buildings and for festooning an otherwise dull tree, and doing it at a speed that deserves its nickname the ‘Mile-a-Minute Vine’.

1996 Chiltern Seeds Catal. 193 China Fleece Vine, Silver Lace Vine, Mile-a-minute Plant... From China comes this vigorous..woody climber that will happily speed its way with great rapidity forty feet up a suitable support.

1996 Radio Times Gardening Offers Catal. Autumn 1/3 Clematis Montana Rubens (Pink Flowers). The Mile-a-Minute Clematis. A fast dense growing Clematis which produces a mass of flowers in May.

1956 W. L. McAtee Some Dial. N. Carolina 56 Mile-a-minute,..the kudzu vine (Pueraria thunbergiana) in allusion to its rapid growth. Chapel Hill.

1991 H. A. Gleason & A. Cronquist Man. Vascular Plants Northeastern U.S. (ed. 2) 138 Polygonum perfoliatum L. Mile-a-minute. Annual, clambering and with reflexed-prickly stems... Native to e. Asia and established in Pa., Md., and W. Va.

1998 A. Sturgeon Planted 110 Russian vine... Fallopia baldschuanica. Its other name is Mile-a-minute, which gives an idea of the speed at which this climbing menace grows.