one jump ahead

Idioms

Anticipating and prepared for what will happen, as in We have to keep one jump ahead of the opposition, or A clever embezzler, Charles was just one jump ahead of the police. [First half of 1900s] Also see get the jump on.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Daisy always seemed to be about one jump ahead of me.

From Literature

Along the way — one jump ahead of Billie and her accompanying gun-thugettes until the very end — Cole and Mila fall in with the Sisters of All Sorrows, a bunch of wannabe nuns who feel sure that if they apologize enough, the men will come back.

From New York Times

An ex-CIA agent and his lover write a book about the agency, one jump ahead of agents sent to stop them.

From Los Angeles Times

‘Half the folks in that house don’t pay the rent, and it a big expense to keep everthing up. I tell you the truth—the Kellys is just barely keeping one jump ahead of the sheriff. They having a mighty hard time.’

From Literature

Daniel Smith “One Jump Ahead” offers early hints of everything that will go wrong with Ritchie’s Aladdin — mainly, that the film’s musical numbers fall somewhere between a very impressive Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade performance and one of ABC’s lesser Wonderful World of Disney made-for-TV movie musicals.

From The Verge

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023