break the ton
v. phr.— «When I was a kid we all drove muscle cars with enormous hemis. The term “breakin’ the ton” was popular slang. You broke the ton when 100 mph was significantly exceeded and sustained.» —“High Speed Slang” by Gregg Mercedes Benz SLK World Forum Feb. 2, 2010. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A...