spread like wildfire

Idioms and Phrases

Disseminate or circulate very quickly, as in The rumor about their divorce spread like wildfire . The noun wildfire means “a raging, rapidly spreading conflagration.” [c. 1800]

Example Sentences

The love for it spread like wildfire as professional chefs and home cooks alike rushed to develop their own versions.

From Salon

Water from a polluted river in Ghana was so thick and discoloured that an artist was able to use it as paint to depict the environmental devastation caused by the illegal gold mining that has spread like wildfire in the resource-rich West African state.

From BBC

But when Australian foodies sunk their teeth into the treats, outrage spread like wildfire after it became clear they were eating days-old goods, sold by a few enterprising locals - with no connection to Crumbl - who had brought the cookies back in suitcases from Hawaii.

From BBC

Yet still the conspiracy theories continued to spread like wildfire.

From Slate

False claims that the person responsible for the killings in Southport was a Muslim refugee who arrived in the UK by boat in 2023 spread like wildfire across X. They then spilled out on to other social media platforms and were also posted on some Telegram channels - but much of the most frenzied, amplified conversation was happening on X.

From BBC

Related Words

• beset
• choke
• deluge
• inundate
• invade
• overflow
• overwhelm
• ravage