spread like wildfire

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

to propagate with extraordinary speed and across a very wide area, in a manner that is difficult or impossible to contain once it has begun; the metaphor of wildfire captures the way in which ideas, information, emotions, fashions, or infectious diseases can expand exponentially through a population, jumping from person to person or node to node through a network with the same terrifying speed with which fire leaps across dry vegetation driven by wind; the phrase is used both admiringly, when a beneficial message goes viral, and with alarm, when false information, panic, or disease spreads beyond the capacity of control efforts to contain