To go off like hot cakes: i.e., rapidly.
1860. A reporter present said:—“All classes [in Charleston] are arming for the contingency of coercion. Revolvers and patent fire-arms are selling like hot cakes.”—O. J. Victor, ‘The History … of the Southern Rebellion,’ i. 46 (1861).
1861. The next [day], down came an order for a dozen baskets [of the wine], and it goes off now like hot cakes.—Knick. Mag., lviii. 259 (Sept.).
