lickety-split

[ lik-i-tee-split ]

/ ˈlɪk ɪ tiˈsplɪt /

at great speed; rapidly: to travel lickety-split.

Origin of lickety-split

1835–45, Americanism; perhaps dial. licket rag (for wiping in haste, with one lick) + -y¹ + split, as in split second

They must have seed the carriage drivin' away, and thought for sure it had the gal in it, and they was after it, lickety-split.

The Stories of the Three Burglars |Frank Richard Stockton
A man was coming down from the north, lickety-split on a roan with a rangy stride.

Curly |Roger Pocock
She thought her last-day was come, with the fences streaking past her lickety-split.

Across the Fruited Plain |Florence Crannell Means
On he fled, across the crisp fields, leaped the fence and struck the road, lickety-split!

Christmas Eve on Lonesome and Other Stories |John Fox, Jr.

And Beagle heard a noise he thought was a fox barking and he started for the tamarack swamp, lickety-split.

Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp |Annie Roe Carr

lickety-split

/ (ˈlɪkɪtɪˈsplɪt) /

US and Canadian informal very quickly; speedily

C19: from lick + split