Expressions from the inferno

These both really usually have to do with wild speeding or extreme behavior. I've always known a lot of people who like to indulge in one or the other. Some would say that wild speeding is extreme behavior. One expression is "bat out of hell," most commonly coupled with flying, riding, or driving like a." The other phrase is "hell-whooping," with the "wh" pronounced as an "h" and the final "g" usually dropped. "We went hell-hoopin' across those waves" or "they came down over that hill hell-whoopin,'" usually in a self-congratulatory (in the first person) or marveling (in the third person) way. Google books comes up with a use of hell-whoopin in a book called "Rim O' the World." Oddly enough, the reference is to riding hell-whooping through the sage. We used to beg adults to go hell-whooping. The book is a Western novel, copyrighted in 1919. The prolific author, one pseudonymous B. M. Bower, was a woman.