Meaning:Spreading, growing
or gaining popularity in an accelerated way; Quickly gaining attention.
Context #1 – A new song was released
by a very popular music artist.
Joc:Hey Clay, did you
hear the new McPac-Man song?
Clayton: No, why?
Joc: Dude, seriously? It’s been spreading like wildfire. It’s become so popular across the world, so
quickly, that the president wants to meet him.
Clayton: No way! That popular?
Larry: Yeah! They say it will be the
track of the century.
Context #2 – The most popular kids in
school started dating.
Jay: Manny started
dating Jinkee.
Alice: I heard! OMG
Jay: Wow, I guess
everybody knows.
Alice: I guess
so. Seems the news has been spreading like wildfire.
Jay: Yeah, even our other campuses know about this
romance.
Alice: Wow, it
really is like wildfire.
Jay: With social
media, you can’t keep anything a secret for long.
Meaning: The
idiom “like wildfire” means that information about something positive/negative
has spread so quickly that it’s almost impossible to stop. Spreading like wildfire means gaining
popularity at a pace most people didn’t imagine possible. The news become almost impossible to control.
