nineteen

nineteen to the dozen

Very rapidly, hurriedly, and/or energetically. My aunt can get talking nineteen to the dozen if you get her on a topic she's passionate about. Sam came running nineteen to the dozen when he heard his son crying out to him from the back garden.
See also: dozen, nineteen

talk nineteen to the dozen

To speak very rapidly, hurriedly, and/or energetically. My aunt can get talking nineteen to the dozen if you get her on a topic she's passionate about. My professor always talks nineteen to the dozen, so it can be hard keeping up with what he's saying.
See also: dozen, nineteen, talk
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

nineteen to the dozen

Prov. very rapidly or energetically. Whenever I get together with my cousins, we always gossip away nineteen to the dozen. While Alan got the other ingredients, Jane was chopping up potatoes nineteen to the dozen.
See also: dozen, nineteen
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

talk nineteen to the dozen

BRITISH
If someone talks nineteen to the dozen, they talk very quickly, without pausing. He was animated, waving his arms around and talking nineteen to the dozen. Note: This expression suggests the idea of using nineteen words where most people would only use twelve. It is unclear why the number nineteen was chosen rather than any other.
See also: dozen, nineteen, talk
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

talk nineteen to the dozen

talk incessantly. British
No convincing reason has been put forward as to why nineteen should have been preferred in this idiom rather than twenty or any other number larger than twelve.
1998 Pamela Jooste Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter He hasn't even got his foot in the door before she's talking nineteen to the dozen and hanging round his neck and asking if he's got sweets in his pocket.
See also: dozen, nineteen, talk
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

talk, etc. nineteen to the ˈdozen

(British English, informal) talk a lot and very fast, usually in an informal conversation: An hour later they were still sitting there talking nineteen to the dozen.
See also: dozen, nineteen
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • 19
  • nineteen to the dozen
  • talk nineteen to the dozen
  • talk, etc. nineteen to the dozen
  • talk twenty to the dozen
  • ten to the dozen
  • come to a climax
  • bring (something) to a climax
  • climax
  • go strong
References in periodicals archive
Nineteen young people were identified for non-payment.
SCHOOLCHILDREN IN BUS FARE DODGE CLAMPDOWN
McLaughlin resembles George McGovern circa 1972 when he argues against military intervention, rightly noting that after the last invasion, in 1915, "We stayed for nineteen years, leaving nothing behind except ill will." George Will, sounding as if he might, at any moment, burst into his own rendition of Pete Seeger's "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," also denounces military intervention on humanitarian grounds, pointing out that "divisions are not democracy planters; they are war-making machines." I don't know about you, but I start squirming when guys like this say stuff I agree with.
Handwringing over Haiti
These court dramas--some nineteen in number and, hence, approximately ten percent of Calderon's total output--are the last genre in the Calderonian canon to be accorded genuinely serious attention (seven are treated here).
The Play of Power: Mythological Court Dramas of Calderon de la Barca
T'WAS Nineteen Twenty Six in London In Bruton Street by the green One fine April morn A baby was born First a Princess then a Queen Elizabeth Alexandra Mary A Princess she thought she would stay But a love sick King Changed everything And the crown was a heart beat away In the year nineteen forty seven She married her love and her Prince Beaming with pride She walked by the side Of the man whose stayed ever since I was a cook on the ship 'Empress of Scotland' When I set eyes on our Queen Or course I must stress She was still our Princess While I was a veg cook so green.
THE QUEEN - A DIAMOND JUBILEE; Your Poem
PESHAWAR, December 05, 2009 (Balochistan Times): At least thirteen militants were killed and nineteen injured and five hide outs of the militants destroyed by the security forces in different areas of South Waziristan during ongoing operation Rah-e-Nijat here on Saturday while, One security personal embraced martyrdom during the operation.
13 militants killed, 19 injured in SWA
Nineteen Eighty Four was Orwell's last and least typical book, and should also be construed as a kind of warning.
George Orwell as an ally
My argument for this is that all of us refer to 1900 as "nineteen hundred" and not "one thousand nine hundred" and 1914 as "nineteen fourteen" and not "one thousand nine hundred and fourteen".
What do you call the millennium?
The pair, who have just finished the communications, culture and media course at Coventry University, also hope Nineteen will be shown on television.
Give views on our film; FIRST SCREENING OF PAIR'S PROJECT
KURRAM AGENCY, September 16, 2010 (Balochistan Times): At least thirteen people were killed and nineteen injured in a tribal clash in Upper Kurram Agency.
13 killed in Kurram tribal clash
MANSHERA -- Police nabbed nineteen proclaimed offenders, drug peddlers and recovered a large quantity of charas and weapon from their possession here on Monday.
Police nabbed 19 POs, recovered drug & weapons
Thus when Jonathan Rose writes of Orwell rejecting the religious orthodoxy of Lewis and Noyes, he is right only in a qualified sense and when he says that Nineteen Eighty-Four draws on a long tradition of anti-Catholic literature, he is apparently blind to the full significance of what he says.
The Revised Orwell