on course
37
3.8
- idiom
:
en camino
- The team is on course to meet the project deadline with their current progress.
- stay on course
- back on course
- remain on course
You know, whatever your goal is, what is it that is going to keep you on course and make sure you achieve that to keep you happy.
- You know, whatever your goal is, what is it that is going to keep you on course and make sure you achieve that to keep you happy.
- But we believe that our decisions will stand the test of time and that we are on course to fix the economy while building a better country.
- The idea is that at every single step of the project, you want to have something that you are monitoring to make sure you are still on course, right?
- What's the earliest sort of domino that fell to put you on course to, to pursue that as your life's work?
- I wonder, but I it doesn't seem like we're on course to have this Galaxy be that.
Examples
-
The engine speed and altitude had stabilized, and the flight was on course.
Academic text (2004) -
Sniffing the wind, keeping an eye on the cloud, he held the vessel steadily on course.
Fiction book (1995) -
Prime Minister, are we on course still to deliver that?
-
Stay on course, we're not going back now.
-
- As long as we keep going in a straight line we'll be on course.
-
You are on course, on schedule.
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Now our only chance for survival was to stay on course and retrieve the money.
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We are thus on course to experience substantial climate change before today's children have lived out their lives.
Academic text (2008) -
We're right on course.
-
Only while she voyages true on course can we establish friendships truer than blood itself.
Synonyms
171
3.4
Moving forward as planned to reach a goal
57
3.7
You are making good progress toward the right result
Antonyms
How On Track
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'progressing as planned' is directly derivable from combining 'on' (indicating position) with 'course' (a route or heading): being 'on course' literally means being on the route toward the goal. This spatial-to-goal metaphor is a common, predictable composition (similar to 'on track') and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The phrase on course comes from sailors and ships: a 'course' was the direction a ship sailed, and staying on that course kept the ship moving toward its goal. So, on course now means 'progressing as planned'.