kick out the jams

English

Verb

kick out the jams (third-person singular simple present kicks out the jams, present participle kicking out the jams, simple past and past participle kicked out the jams)

1. To behave in a raucous, wild, passionate manner free from restraint; to let loose.
   • 1998, John Downton Hazlett, My Generation: Collective Autobiography and Identity Politics, page 192:

     Then the unthinkable might be actual, the unprecedented possible. You could safely kick out the jams, dissolve the old hesitations, break with adults, be done with compromises, get on with it.

   • 2006, Tom Green, Jordan L Chilcott, Foundation Flash 8 Video, page 240:

     After that, we kick out the jams and explore some of the more interesting things you can do with a webcam.

   • 2013, Robert McCammon, The Five, page 219:

     Bella was in her mid-thirties, had long prematurely gray hair and the face of a serene earth mother, but she could kick out the jams and lay down some howling firepower with her cherry-red 1975 Gretsch Streamliner.

   • 2014, Barry Werth, The Antidote: Inside the World of New Pharma, page 321:

     That Friday, Ken retired, signifying the start of a new era without any Bogers involved in the company's operations. It was a good time to acknowlege^[sic] progress, take stock, paint a vision, back-pat, then feast, drink, and kick out the jams.

See also

• raise the roof

Further reading

• “kick out the jams” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.