Very rapid(ly). The speed of lightning had been likened to any fast action since the sixteenth century. “It must be done like lightning,” wrote Ben Jonson in 1598 (Every Man in His Humour, 4.5). In the early nineteenth century somebody or other decided that grease would exaggerate the idea of haste even more. Some attribute it to Americans, others to Britons. An early appearance in print was in the Boston Herald of 1833: “He spoke as quick as ‘greased lightning.’” Almost synonymous is the expression like a blue streak, which since about 1830 has also meant “very fast.” However, it acquired another meaning when used in the context of talking. To talk a blue streak has meant, since the mid-1800s, to talk fast and intensely, virtually without stopping. A letter of S. Hale’s (1895) stated, “I drove in . . . talking a blue streak two miles to her house.” See also talk one's head off; quick as a wink.

A tendency toward nastiness. In effect, the phrase implies that a person is not entirely bad but is given to occasional spiteful or malicious behavior. The Toronto Daily Star used it on June 16, 1960: “A girl who would be attracted to Bud’s mean streak and bad temper must be a little out to lunch.” See also out to lunch.