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steal a march on
Idioms and Phrases
Gain an advantage over unexpectedly or secretly, as in Macy's stole a march on their rival department store with their Thanksgiving Day parade . This metaphoric expression comes from medieval warfare, where a march was the distance an army could travel in a day. By quietly marching at night, a force could surprise and overtake the enemy at daybreak. Its figurative use dates from the second half of the 1700s.Example Sentences
F1 is introducing new engine and chassis regulations in 2026 and Newey has become famous for his ability to spot the secrets of new rules and steal a march on his rivals as a result.
Steal a march on other players in this week’s Slate News Quiz.
Selling the project - backed by a lot of money - helped steal a march on rivals, but there was also an element of gamble, too.
Mr Trump's unusually early declaration for the election of 5 November 2024 is being seen as a tactic to steal a march on potential rivals for the Republicans' White House nomination.
And in the United States, early in the last century, some of President Theodore Roosevelt's modest moves to regulate business and break up trusts were, in fact, designed to steal a march on this country's socialists, whom he feared, as he wrote to a friend, were "far more ominous than any populist or similar movement in times past."
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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