two-forty on a plank road

English

Phrase

two-forty on a plank road

1. (Canada, US, slang, obsolete) A very fast speed.
   • 1852, G. Henry Howard Paul, Dashes of American humour, page 206:

     The passion of young New York is for horses — fast horses — two-forty on a plank road.

   • 1862, Frank Moore, The Rebellion Record, a Diary of American Events, page 474:

     […] some that remained, running to and fro, with white rags suspended on broom-handles, and an old darky had a bleached salt-sack tied to a limb of a tree, waving it at the rate of two-forty on a plank-road.

2. (Canada, US, slang, obsolete, by extension) The quality of being "fast", i.e. immoral in one's habits.
   • 1867, The Broadway Annual, page 596:

     In Canada, where trotting is also a very favourite amusement, and whence came the famous trotting mare Flora Temple, a very “fast” young lady is generally spoken of as “two forty on a plank road.”

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary