steal a march
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Gain an advantage by doing something before others
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Đạt được lợi thế bằng cách làm điều gì đó trước những người khác
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: walk quietly and quickly
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The company stole a march on its competitors by launching the new product first
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “steal a march” mean?
Gain an advantage by doing something before others Literally: walk quietly and quickly
Is “steal a march” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.