The idiom “hotfoot” means to move quickly and with purpose. It dates back over 700 years and is often used to describe someone in a hurry to get things done. Other idioms with a similar meaning include “going like a bat out of hell” and “moving at the speed of light.” The opposite of hotfoot is “slow and steady wins the race.”
Many people of a certain age have a vague memory of a Marx brother sticking a match between another brother’s sole and leather upper and then, eyebrows raised, striking the match. Interestingly, this is not the origin of the idiom hotfoot, but rather a literal interpretation of it. The phrase means what the image of him suggests. As a verb, it means to run or run because someone with a hot foot has trouble going slow.
Anyone who stops to imagine someone moving from one place to another knows that they are in a great hurry, probably to get something or to get ahead. Someone might kick into high gear and whiz around a slow-moving crowd at the airport or subway stop to try and beat the oncoming train. For hotfoot it generally means moving quickly and with a purpose or motivation. While it’s true that some people seem like chronic hotfoot, always in a hurry, it’s probably because they believe they need to hurry to get things done. Someone with a hot foot isn’t just hyperactive, running from here to there with no purpose in mind other than to burn off energy.
Other idioms can suggest this same quality of motion, from going like a bat out of hell to moving at the speed of light. Someone who scrambles while the sun is shining moves quickly to get as much done as possible, literally while there is light to see and metaphorically while there is enough energy, time, or other commodity to make it happen.
While this expression sounds like it may have originated in the 1920s, along with idioms like 23 skiddoo and loose lips sink ships, the phrase actually dates back more than 700 years and was originally coined in Middle English. Somehow, it has managed to be expressive enough to retain its sense of purpose and remain an active idiom in the English language.
Common verbs that mean much the same thing include bolt, dart, or harmle. Like this idiom, these verbs also contain a highly imaginative component. It’s hard to read a statement like “He darted out the door” without imagining that particular sharply directed, rapid quality of movement.
A somewhat opposite meaning is found in another expression, slow and steady wins the race. In both of these cases, however, a race of some sort, i.e. a goal, is ultimately won or achieved. On the other hand, someone who trudges at a turtle’s pace doesn’t move with motivation or intention, which makes it a completely opposite expression.
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