Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to be dismissed from a job.

1937

R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 45: It’s you that ought to get the pedal, not me.

1. (orig. US) to accelerate an automobile; thus pedal to the metal adj./adv., very fast.

1976		Lieberman & Rhodes Complete CB Handbk 328: Put the pedal to the metal and have yourself a ball ’cause in the northbound lane we haven’t seen nothing at all.
1984		Run DMC ‘Hollis Crew’ 🎵 Just put your mind to it, you’ll go real far / Like a pedal to the metal when you’re drivin a car.
1992		R. Marcinko Rogue Warrior (1993) 191: I screamed for the pilot to put the pedal to the metal.
1993		(con. 1969) N.L. Russell Suicide Charlie 105: The driver would put the pedal to the metal and blow on through while the guard held the gate open.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 68: I push the pedal to the metal an’ swerve round her.
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 115: We’re moving fast [...] Pedal to the metal, taking the curves on two wheels.
2000		B. Wiprud Sleep with the Fishes 55: Weekenders felt they were on the home stretch and could put the pedal to the metal.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] I pushed the pedal to the metal and gunned it.
2011		C. Faust Choke Hold [ebook] I kept the pedal to the metal for another five or ten minutes.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] Jay gave it pedal and the big engine ate up road.

2. in fig. uses, implying energy; also as adj./adv as above.

2001		‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 269: Instinct told me to drive Brandi fast and hard. I put the pedal to the metal and went all out.
2006		Luca Turin Secret of Scent 65: Allyl amyl glycolate [...] forms the core of huge pedal-to-the-metal fragrances like Giorgio and its imitators.

(US) a cyclist, esp. a racing cyclist; thus pedal-pushing, (competitive) cycling.

1890		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 11 Oct. 3/2: Crist had a national reputation as a crack pedal pusher.
1897		St Paul Globe (MN) 30 May 11/4: It will be an easy matter for a weary pedal-pusher to let the air out of his tire [sic].
1897		Hawaiian Gaz. (Honolulu) 22 Oct. 1/5: George martin, about whose various capabilities in the pedal-pushing line there has been so much said.
1905		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 26 Mar. 5/1: Dedicated to the Yankee band of pedal-pushing pirates.
1906		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 26 Mar. 7/1: N.C.A. Says Every Pedal-Pusher Must get out and Win on His ‘Pat’.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Aug. 16/4: ‘Machete’ casts the war-bike into the outer darkness, and he bases his arguments for its abounding uselessness on his experience in S’th Af. with a pedal-pusher corps.
1920		Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 2 June 20/2: The Americans will pit their pedal-pushing skill against the two foreigners.
1922		Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 28 May 19/8: The European pedal-pusher was clocked in eleven minutes ansd fifteen seconds flat.
2009		The Guardian 24 July blog 🌐 I went to see my first ever bikey play last week: Pedal Pusher, a Tour de France-themed tale staged in a disused office space in Central London.