We can say “put on speed”? Can we also say “put on the gas” to mean “drive fast”? I saw “put the brakes on” which means “apply the brakes of a vehicle”.

"Put the hammer down" maybe, but not put on the gas.

I’ve heard: Step on the gas (accelerator) Turn on the gas (accelerator) But not ‘put on the gas’

It says that the poster is from England, so this must be a dialect thing. I’ve never heard anyone in the U.S. say “put on speed” or “put on the gas.” In the U.S. we would say “hit the gas,” “step on the gas” or “step on it”, or simply “speed up.” “Hit the gas!” or “Step on it!” are both commonly understood, informal ways of urgently telling someone to speed up.

Nope. You can say ‘step on the gas’ though. I don’t think ‘put on’ is ever used in relation to the speed of a car.

No. In the examples you give, the weight is being put on the body, and the runs are being put on the scoreboard. There is an unstated object. Common ways to say it would be: I sped up - I accelerated - I hit the gas.

If you say that I will understand. It’s not what we would say. But it works, because it uses our usual auxiliary word combinations in an understandable way. So, on that level, I have to respect the understanding of English that was necessary to make up that new way of saying it. But that’s not an established normal way to say that, no. And that’s okay. When you can throw together brand new combinations of auxiliary words with an understanding of what that combination means, that’s when we know you fully understand how auxiliaries work. Put on speed? No I’ve never said that before, and I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it before, but we both know it means to accelerate. The fact that you understand this, means you’re really starting to “get it.” Compound verbs and auxiliaries can be extremely confusing for many people. When you reach the level where you can play with them and invent new ones, nice work.

I’m a British English native speaker and “put on speed” would not be a common phrase in England. Except for some very specific situations (discussing vehicles in a sport or time context) I would notice that the phrasing is very weird in conversation. Maybe something a very old person would say? If I were to say “[something] is increasing in speed” it would depend on the thing that’s accelerating, what I’m trying to communicate etc. but a common phrase would be “[it] is getting faster”, with “[it] is increasing in speed” being more formal, and “[it] is accelerating” being scientific. “[That]’s rapid!” or similar such informal exclamations would also be common in British English “Put on the gas” in British English would refer to actual gas, like the type you use to heat water or cook food, and in American English where ‘gas’ can mean the gasoline used to power a car, Americans wouldn’t say “put on” in this context “Put on the brakes” is an informal British English phrase, I probably wouldn’t use it while actually driving a car, but I can see how some might

Nope. “Put on speed” is of relatively archaic origin from the age of sail. Boats would literally put on more sails, which would increase their speed. You could physically see someone “putting on speed”. But mostly it doesn’t apply in modern contexts. The phrase still hangs around, but it’s becoming less common.

"put on fifty runs before lunch" is not idiomatic. It's a bad translation. "put on fifty _pounds_ since high school" is idiomatic. That's an accepted way of talking _specifically_ about gaining weight. "His misery was just put on" should be "...just _a_ put-on." Leaving out the article and hyphen isn't idiomatic. "Step on the gas" and "hit the gas" are both understood to mean "press the accelerator pedal vigorously." It might sound weird outside North America because in US/Canada, "gas" by itself means petroleum; but in other Anglophone countries (such as UK, Australia), "gas" by itself means some other kind of liquid fuel (like natural gas), and they call petroleum "petrol." However, they would probably understand it from having watched movies from the US. "Put the brakes on" and "pump[ed] the brakes on" is used _metaphorically_ in the US, not sure about elsewhere. It means "to slow something down," like an idea or a plan. I've never heard anyone using either phrase literally. However, "put the _parking_ brake on" would be used literally (not metaphorically) in the US.

I don't think this person is a retired English teacher from Britain.

This is a weird one. The definitions Rover has cited have come from [Collin's English Dictionary](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/put-on) which contains the two examples - Weight and runs. If you do a "define: Put on" in google you'll get the Oxford Languages definition: >4. increase in body weight by a specified amount."she's given up her diet and put on 20 lb" >add a specified amount to the cost of something."the news put 12 pence on the share price" >Cricket(of [batters](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=e78f65ef556a8826&sxsrf=ADLYWII4bmfGFNxByXh5gXN8gqqTYFZf8w:1735893456491&q=batters&si=ACC90nypsxZVz3WGK63NbnSPlfCBCKhtwGGEJZhBiNBsAXI6SnWPU3W8y6JaTPxV-mLvK_hFn-ILkd9x6j13xPlzorGoH2v6VA%3D%3D&expnd=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjP792Gk9mKAxXYWUEAHb3QMMoQyecJegQIShBO)) score a particular number of runs in a partnership."Gooch and Broad put on 125 for the first wicket" As a native speaker and English Literature graduate I'm not familiar with the use of "put on" outside of the context of weight and finance. I think what's missing here is that we expect an amount associated with the "put on" in most cases, either explicitly stated or implied. So "put on speed" sounds wrong, but something like "put on some speed" sounds okay, or "put on a bit of speed" sounds better. Because speed can either be low, high, or even negative it feels wrong to use it in isolation. In this case, "put on weight" implies a significant amount of increased weight but that implication isn't inherent to "put on speed" to my interpretation. This makes me think "put on weight" may be specifically idiomatic rather than a generally applicable statement. So for my two pennies worth (if I'm allowed to put on pennies, as it were), I would probably avoid this usage. The common usage would be "I went faster" or "I increased my speed" or suchlike, or many of the more colloquial usages already in this thread such as "Step on the gas".