to jump before one is pushed
- idiom
:
saltar antes de ser empujado
- Realizing the company was restructuring, he decided to jump before he was pushed.
Examples
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She wisely chose to jump before she was pushed and resigned from her post.
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She decided to jump before she was pushed.
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Some politicians jump before they are pushed to avoid public scandal.
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He jumped before he was pushed last year.
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She decided to jump before she was pushed and accepted a new job offer before being laid off.
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Feeling the tension in the office, he chose to jump before he was pushed and resigned.
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After several warnings from his boss, Tom wisely jumped before he was pushed and left for a better opportunity.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
jump + before + one + be + push
The meaning 'to leave voluntarily before being forced out' is directly compositional from 'jump' (act quickly/leave), 'before' (prior to) and 'one is pushed' (being forced out), so the overall sense follows straightforward literal logic. This kind of cause–effect phrasing is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
The phrase jump before one is pushed comes from the simple image of someone choosing to jump away before another person pushes them. So it means 'to leave a job or situation by choice before you are forced out'.