"off and running" meaning in English

See off and running in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: En-au-off and running.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: An allusion to the beginning of a footrace or horse race, when competitors rush forth out of the starting blocks or gate. Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} off and running (not comparable)
  1. (idiomatic) Launched or launching vigorously into a course of action. Tags: idiomatic, not-comparable Related terms: off to the races

Download JSON data for off and running meaning in English (2.6kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "An allusion to the beginning of a footrace or horse race, when competitors rush forth out of the starting blocks or gate.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "off and running (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English coordinated pairs",
          "parents": [
            "Coordinated pairs",
            "Terms by etymology"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2000 July 24, Felicity Barringer, “Running on Adrenaline And Ideology at The Post”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-04-16",
          "text": "But both newspapers made the same point. . . . And so the story was off and running.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 October 27, Jessica Au, “When Movies Follow The Storm”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2015-04-16",
          "text": "The train won't budge, but the film that this scene opens, the Kafkaesque Romanian comedy \"California Dreamin',\" is off and running.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 December 14, Jay Fitzgerald, “Economic recovery starts gaining steam”, in Boston Globe, retrieved 2015-04-16",
          "text": "[T]he recovery seems to have entered a new stage in recent months. “We’re finally off and running,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Launched or launching vigorously into a course of action."
      ],
      "id": "en-off_and_running-en-adj-xhnMFX5L",
      "links": [
        [
          "Launched",
          "launch"
        ],
        [
          "vigorous",
          "vigorous"
        ],
        [
          "course of action",
          "course of action"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Launched or launching vigorously into a course of action."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "off to the races"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-off and running.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/49/En-au-off_and_running.ogg/En-au-off_and_running.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/En-au-off_and_running.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "off and running"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "An allusion to the beginning of a footrace or horse race, when competitors rush forth out of the starting blocks or gate.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "off and running (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "off to the races"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adjectives",
        "English coordinated pairs",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncomparable adjectives"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2000 July 24, Felicity Barringer, “Running on Adrenaline And Ideology at The Post”, in New York Times, retrieved 2015-04-16",
          "text": "But both newspapers made the same point. . . . And so the story was off and running.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007 October 27, Jessica Au, “When Movies Follow The Storm”, in Newsweek, retrieved 2015-04-16",
          "text": "The train won't budge, but the film that this scene opens, the Kafkaesque Romanian comedy \"California Dreamin',\" is off and running.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 December 14, Jay Fitzgerald, “Economic recovery starts gaining steam”, in Boston Globe, retrieved 2015-04-16",
          "text": "[T]he recovery seems to have entered a new stage in recent months. “We’re finally off and running,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Launched or launching vigorously into a course of action."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Launched",
          "launch"
        ],
        [
          "vigorous",
          "vigorous"
        ],
        [
          "course of action",
          "course of action"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Launched or launching vigorously into a course of action."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-off and running.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/49/En-au-off_and_running.ogg/En-au-off_and_running.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/En-au-off_and_running.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "off and running"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.