Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Italiano term or phrase:
macchia d'olio
Inglese translation:
(spread) like wildfire
Italiano term
Stati Uniti
Translation for mission-driven orgs
Native in: Inglese 
Works in: Da Spagnolo a Inglese, Da Catalano a Inglese, Da Inglese a Spagnolo, and 1 more.
macchia d'olio
Vi e' una chiara frattura generazionale nella percezione di X che mano mano tende a stendersi a macchia d'olio sulle generazioni piu' adulte come testimaniato dai confronti X vs Y per il target 25-34 anni, dove Y ha practicamente raggiunto X come solidata' del profilo d'immagine.
| 5 +5 | (spread) like wildfire |
Angela Arnone
|
| 5 +1 | throughout all |
James (Jim) Davis
|
| 4 | oil spill |
Rosanna Palermo
|
Non-PRO (1): silvia b (X)
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Proposed translations
Italian by name ... English by nature!
Native in: Inglese
Works in: Da Italiano a Inglese, Inglese, Italiano
(spread) like wildfire
You should post "mano mano" as a separate kudoz, but it actually means "slowly" or "gradually" and as a consequence it has been misused in this sentence because it is the oppposite of "macchia d'olio".
I suggest (not what I would normally recommend) you skip it or your sentence will be self-defeating.
Angela
Seicelle
25 years experience constantly improving
Native in: Inglese (Variant: British)
Works in: Da Italiano a Inglese
throughout all
My first reaction was to give Angela's answer, but although there is a lot of overlap the metaphors are not identical. How fast does oil spread on water? Fast, but, the "macchia" covers everything even if it does not move fast. I would hesitate to say that the use of "man mano" here is wrong, but the author obviously meant that the phenomenon is gradually permeating everywhere.
.. which is gradually tending to spread throughout all the adult generations...
Accuracy matters - La precisione conta
Native in: Italiano 
, Inglese (Variant: US)
Works in: Da Italiano a Inglese
oil spill
as proven by x vs y comparisons/analysis/sudies of x vs y, wherein y...
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