balls to the wall
With maximum effort or commitmentWith maximum effort or commitment.
Meaning
2 senses(US, idiomatic, not comparable, slang)With maximum effort or commitment.
(US, idiomatic, not comparable, slang)Full throttle; (at) maximum speed.
Origin
First attested in the 1960s in the context of aviation, in reference to ball-shaped gripsFirst attested in the 1960s in the context of aviation, in reference to ball-shaped grips on an aircraft's engine controls (typically throttle, prop pitch and fuel mixture). Pushing these "balls to the wall" would put the aircraft at maximum thrust. Analogous to pedal to the metal. Not related to the term balls-out, which refers to a ball governor on a steam engine. Neither balls-out nor balls to the wall is connected with the vulgar sense of balls (“testicles”) except via folk etymology.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.