Balls: out, and to the wall

[benfrantzdale]

It appears that two seemingly colorful expressions, balls out and balls to the wall are actually perfectly innocent expressions no more crude than the expression petal to the metal; all three expressions basically mean the same thing and appear to have similar origins just for different machines. As far as a I can tell, balls out refers to steam

Comments

[silimili]

That may be so, but I'm convinced that their staying power is at least partially because of the anatomical reference.

[amoken]

Absolutely.

Btw, B, it's "pedal to the metal". "Petal to the metal" would be very interesting to try to figure out the origin and why it would have such a strong meaning. ;)

[silimili]

Hmm, that might work as a FFM band name...sorry 1 track mind right now, lol.

[macdaddyfrosh]

Oh, I've got my petal to the metal, if you know what I mean.

Do you know what I mean? Because I don't...