"steal a march" meaning in English

See steal a march in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-steal a march.ogg Forms: steals a march [present, singular, third-person], stealing a march [participle, present], stole a march [past], stolen a march [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|steal<,,stole,stolen> a march}} steal a march (third-person singular simple present steals a march, present participle stealing a march, simple past stole a march, past participle stolen a march)
  1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To gain an advantage unobserved. Tags: idiomatic, intransitive
    Sense id: en-steal_a_march-en-verb-ie227BeU Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 87 13 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 81 19 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 87 13
  2. (intransitive, idiomatic) To start early. Tags: idiomatic, intransitive
    Sense id: en-steal_a_march-en-verb-HF4XkvFF
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: get the drop on, head start

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "steals a march",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stealing a march",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stole a march",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stolen a march",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "steal<,,stole,stolen> a march"
      },
      "expansion": "steal a march (third-person singular simple present steals a march, present participle stealing a march, simple past stole a march, past participle stolen a march)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "get the drop on"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "head start"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "87 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "81 19",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "87 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1759 August 1, Horace Walpole, Letter to Sir Horace Mann, page 501:",
          "text": "Fifty thousand men cannot easily steal a march over the sea.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1771, [Tobias Smollett], “To Sir Watkin Phillips, of Jesus College, Oxon.”, in The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume I, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC, pages 127–128:",
          "text": "You muſt knovv, ſhe yeſterday vvanted to ſteal a march of poor Liddy, and vvent to breakfaſt in the Room vvithout any other companion than her dog, in expectation of meeting vvith the Baronet, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1883, George MacDonald, chapter 67, in Donal Grant:",
          "text": "He enjoyed the idea of stealing a march on society, and seeing the sons he had left at such a disadvantage behind him, ruffling it, in spite of absurd law, with the foolish best.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 May 25, David Smith, “Failure to launch: Twitter glitches deal double blow to Elon Musk and Ron DeSantis”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-25:",
          "text": "For [Elon] Musk it looked like an easy win in his effort to make Twitter the public square, especially one that attracts rightwing blowhards and steal a march on Fox News.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To gain an advantage unobserved."
      ],
      "id": "en-steal_a_march-en-verb-ie227BeU",
      "links": [
        [
          "advantage",
          "advantage"
        ],
        [
          "unobserved",
          "unobserved"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, idiomatic) To gain an advantage unobserved."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They stole a march by taking non-merchandise inventory on January 2.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1905, Jack London, All Gold Canyon:",
          "text": "In the morning he stole a march on the sun, for he had finished breakfast when its first rays caught him.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To start early."
      ],
      "id": "en-steal_a_march-en-verb-HF4XkvFF",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, idiomatic) To start early."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-steal a march.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1e/En-au-steal_a_march.ogg/En-au-steal_a_march.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/En-au-steal_a_march.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "steal a march"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "steals a march",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stealing a march",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stole a march",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stolen a march",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "steal<,,stole,stolen> a march"
      },
      "expansion": "steal a march (third-person singular simple present steals a march, present participle stealing a march, simple past stole a march, past participle stolen a march)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "get the drop on"
    },
    {
      "word": "head start"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1759 August 1, Horace Walpole, Letter to Sir Horace Mann, page 501:",
          "text": "Fifty thousand men cannot easily steal a march over the sea.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1771, [Tobias Smollett], “To Sir Watkin Phillips, of Jesus College, Oxon.”, in The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume I, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC, pages 127–128:",
          "text": "You muſt knovv, ſhe yeſterday vvanted to ſteal a march of poor Liddy, and vvent to breakfaſt in the Room vvithout any other companion than her dog, in expectation of meeting vvith the Baronet, […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1883, George MacDonald, chapter 67, in Donal Grant:",
          "text": "He enjoyed the idea of stealing a march on society, and seeing the sons he had left at such a disadvantage behind him, ruffling it, in spite of absurd law, with the foolish best.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 May 25, David Smith, “Failure to launch: Twitter glitches deal double blow to Elon Musk and Ron DeSantis”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-25:",
          "text": "For [Elon] Musk it looked like an easy win in his effort to make Twitter the public square, especially one that attracts rightwing blowhards and steal a march on Fox News.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To gain an advantage unobserved."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "advantage",
          "advantage"
        ],
        [
          "unobserved",
          "unobserved"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, idiomatic) To gain an advantage unobserved."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They stole a march by taking non-merchandise inventory on January 2.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1905, Jack London, All Gold Canyon:",
          "text": "In the morning he stole a march on the sun, for he had finished breakfast when its first rays caught him.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To start early."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, idiomatic) To start early."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-steal a march.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1e/En-au-steal_a_march.ogg/En-au-steal_a_march.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/En-au-steal_a_march.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "steal a march"
}

Download raw JSONL data for steal a march meaning in English (3.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). 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.