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When you say to a driver "Let her out" referring to a car, do you mean "let's drive fast"? Can you say like that? I am reading a story and there is such a phrase:

"Let her out, Frank," called he to his chauffeur, as we rounded into a broad and now almost deserted thoroughfare.

In which situations can one say this?

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  • Though cars are certainly personified, 'Let somebody out' as a title here just does not work.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 16:04
  • I've re-edited. 'Let her out' certainly means 'Open her up', ie 'Speed up' (with a hint of rapid acceleration). I'm not sure that it's not a reference to what happens to the accelerator cable when the pedal is depressed (or an equivalent in older cars), but with transferred usage to the car herself.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 16:11
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    It's more of a male appetite for speed and the open road (I don't think many ladies refer to cars as 'she's). 'Let her rip!' (Don't 'accept' an answer, especially one without references, for a day or so; someone may hopefully find a validated etymology of the phrase).
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 16:39
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    @EdwinAshworth Ok, thank you for your advice. In my language a word car has a female gender. We call it she, that's why i thought that the narrator meant his car calling it "she".
    – Helen
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 16:53
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    @EdwinAshworth fwiw in French the car might well be “la bagnole”, “elle” or (as I discovered on another SE site) “ma titine”.
    – Will Crawford
    Commented Mar 12, 2020 at 13:00

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The following is speculation! If someone has anything definitive, I'd be happy to hear it!

This is an older usage (mid-1950s is the latest I can think of). It references horses or other animals and "letting them out" to stretch their legs - to trot, gallop, run, or otherwise go fast.

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  • Yep, I'm reasonably certain that "Let her out", for automobiles, originated as a sort of metaphorical reference to letting loose on the reins of a team of horses pulling a wagon, so that the horses would run faster.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 17:20
  • merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/…
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 22:40
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@farfromunique's answer is already quite correct, but for future visitors, there are three situations in which one can say [while sitting in a car and speaking to the driver], “let her out”, viz:

  • you want them to put on a burst of speed, as in the OPs example

  • to mean “Stop here and open the door to allow our passenger to get out of the car”

  • to mean “Pause for a moment so that that car over there can pull out of the turning first, we’re not in any hurry, and they seem to have been waiting a while”

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  • That's a great explanation, thank you!
    – Helen
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 21:29

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