set the Thames on fire

Meaning

Verb

• To achieve something amazing; to do something which brings great public acclaim.

Origin

• Unknown. Suggested to derive from a misconstrual of temse: thus, to work so vigorously as to heat a sieve by friction. Alternatively, a reference to lightning strikes which sometimes occurred along the Thames, occasionally setting trees on fire or causing death in unusual manner. Otherwise simply by hyperbole, from the impossibility of setting a river on fire.