Meaning of Idiom ‘Jump the Gun’
To jump the gun means to start too early; to start doing something before you should or before it is appropriate to begin; to do something without thinking about it carefully first; to begin something before preparations have been made; to act prematurely or to act too hastily. 1Definition of jump the gun from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press,2Bengelsdorf, Peter. Idioms in the News – 1,000 Phrases, Real Examples. N.p.: Amz Digital Services, 2012.,3Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.
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Examples Of Use
“The wedding reception was fun except they jumped the gun and cut the cake too early. Most of the guests hadn’t even arrived.”
“The newspaper jumped the gun and printed the story before the sources had been properly vetted. Now they’ve had to retract the story.”
“I’m afraid I jumped the gun on announcing that I was leaving the company. My new job fell through.”
“Someone jumped the gun and now everyone knows that one of the favorite characters on the show is going to be killed off. Needless to say, the show makers aren’t happy.”
“Let’s not jump the gun. We have to finish the testing first.”
“Aren’t we jumping the gun a bit? Let’s talk about this before you rush into anything.”
Origin
This idiom alludes to a starting pistol used to signal the beginning of a race. To jump the gun, in a race, means to start before the gun goes off. This phrase began as beat the pistol around 1900 but by the early 1940s had become ‘jump the gun.’ It passed into general figurative use by the mid-1900s. 4Ammer, Christine. The Dictionary of Cliches: a Word Lover’s Guide to 4,000 Overused Phrases and Almost-Pleasing Platitudes. Skyhorse Publishing, 2014.
More Idioms Starting with J
- Jump to Conclusions
- Jump on the Bandwagon
- Just Fell Off the Turnip Truck
- Jig Is Up, the
- Johnny-Come-Lately
More Gun Idioms
More Jump Idioms
- Jump At Something (chance, offer, opportunity)
- Jump Through Hoops
- Jump to Conclusions
- Jump on the Bandwagon
- Jump the Shark
Sources