strike oil
Related to strike oil: strike gold
strike oil
1. To access stores of oil while drilling into the ground. Stop drilling, we've struck oil!
2. To achieve success in some area, often financially. A: "We sure struck oil when we recorded that song." B: "I know, it's become a huge hit and will pay us a ton in royalties."
See also: oil, strike
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
strike oil
If you strike oil, you suddenly become successful in finding or doing something. In Austin, a new generation of high-tech billionaires has struck oil in the computer industry. Jennifer McFarlane aims to strike oil on the Australian executive job market. Note: This expression is more commonly used literally to say that someone discovers oil in the ground as a result of drilling.
See also: oil, strike
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
strike oil
attain prosperity or success. 1994 Nature S. P. Goldman …seems to have struck oil in the search for better ways of computing electronic states.
See also: oil, strike
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
strike oil, to
To make a lucky discovery or breakthrough. Originating in nineteenth-century America, this literal expression was used figuratively by the second half of the century. James Russell Lowell (Poetical Works, 1888) wrote: “We are a nation which has struck ile [sic].” A straightforward synonym is to strike it rich, also from mining, which alludes to finding a substantial mineral deposit.
See also: strike
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- strike oil, to
- for (the) want of (something)
- for want of something
- lease (something) to (someone or something)
- lease to
- oil up
- burn the midnight oil
- burn the midnight oil, to
- midnight
- oil field trash