force the pace

force the pace (third-person singular simple present forces the pace, present participle forcing the pace, simple past and past participle forced the pace)

1. To undertake a decisive, fast-paced approach.
   • 1955 July, D. S. Barrie, “Railways of the Bridgend District”, in Railway Magazine, page 447:

     Meanwhile the larger company was showing no great eagerness to yield to the pressure of South Wales interests to convert its gauge, and with a view to forcing the pace, the Llynvi & Ogmore in 1871 promoted a remarkable railway from an extension of its system already authorised near Blackmill, eastward across country to join the Rhymney Railway at Nantgarw, in the Vale of Taff, above Cardiff.

• “force the pace”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “force the pace” (US) / “force the pace” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “force the pace”, in Collins English Dictionary.