steal a march

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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.
   • 1759 August 1, Horace Walpole, Letter to Sir Horace Mann, page 501:

     Fifty thousand men cannot easily steal a march over the sea.

   • 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:

     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, […]

   • 1883, George MacDonald, chapter 67, in Donal Grant:

     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.

   • 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:

     For 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.

2. (intransitive, idiomatic) To start early.

   They stole a march by taking non-merchandise inventory on January 2.

   • 1905, Jack London, All Gold Canyon:

     In the morning he stole a march on the sun, for he had finished breakfast when its first rays caught him.

• get the drop on
• head start