fast lane

noun

Also called express lane. the lane of a multilane roadway that is used by fast-moving vehicles, as when passing slower traffic.

Informal. any scene, activity, or pursuit that is exciting, high-pressured, competitive, swift-moving, and sometimes dissipated or dangerous:

Alcoholism and stress are often the price for living life in the fast lane.

Compare fast track.

Origin

1965-70

Examples from the web for fast lane

On the new divided highways that funnel people into the unplanned city, oxcarts were heading the wrong way in the fast lane.
If this is the information superhighway, we'd better get in the fast lane.
Gliding off down the fast lane in a sports car, stopping to fill up with thirty litres of petrol.
The naturally fearless, for example, live in the fast lane from their diaper days.
For all its drawbacks, life in the fast lane clearly has its compensations.
He lives in the fast lane but finds that he can no longer keep up.

British Dictionary definitions for fast lane

fast lane

noun

the outside lane on a motorway or dual carriageway for vehicles overtaking or travelling at high speed

(informal) the quickest but most competitive route to success

Slang definitions & phrases for fast lane

fast lane

modifier

: its glittery fast-lane image/ New York's fast-track, high-yield high culture

noun phrase

A pace and quality of life emphasizing quick success against strong competition, along with the trappings of wealth and style: amazing woman, lives on a fast lane/ Jean Piaget started academic life on a fast track/ certainly influenced the 1960s expression ''life in the fast lane''

[1960s+; fr the left-hand or fast lane of a superhighway, which slower drivers enter at their risk, and a horse-racing track in good, dry condition]

Idioms and Phrases with fast lane

fast lane

Also, life in the fast lane. A lifestyle that involves free spending and self-indulgence, and sometimes also dissipation and danger. For example, They're finding that life in the fast lane can be very stressful. This term alludes to the highway express lane used by faster vehicles to pass slower ones. [ ; c. 1970 ]

Also see: fast track