get ahead of oneself

Language: en

Meaning: (idiomatic)Tofocusexcessivelyon one'splansor onprospectivefutureevents without paying adequate attention to the present.1997July 12, Andy Farrell, “Sport: Fulke's 12 birdies fail to fell Lehman”, inThe Independent, UK, retrieved25 July 2012:Montgomerie suspected he wasgetting ahead of himself. "I think I am thinking about next week too much," he said.1998July 28,Ira Berkow, “GOLF: Raised To Be A Champion; Father's Firm Push Sent Pak To the Top of Women's Golf”, inNew York Times, retrieved25 July 2012:"I felt like she plays just one shot at a time. She nevergets ahead of herself."2001June 24, Bruce W. Nelan, “Cover/D-Day”, inTime:The eager American warriors weregetting ahead of themselves. The Allies had neither the troops nor the landing craft needed to carry out Operation Sledgehammer or Roundup or the other code-named plans.; (idiomatic)To develop anopinionbased oninsufficientinformation or totake actionprematurely.2006April 28, “Media Monkey: Channel 4's crystal ball”, inThe Guardian, UK, retrieved25 July 2012:Channel 4 News's Samira Ahmed rathergot ahead of herselfwhen she told viewers on Saturday afternoon that Liverpool had beaten Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final-even thought it was still 90 minutes away from kick-off.2007, Cassandra Chan,Village Affairs‎[1],→ISBN, page18:“Frankly,” he said in a moment, “I think the chief constable hasgot ahead of himselfon this one. There's no real evidence the man was murdered.”2011, Ann Evans,Dream Baby‎[2],→ISBN:Mother sometimesgot ahead of herselfand didn't think things through.; (idiomatic)Tospeakorwritein a manner in which one makes points out oflogicalorchronologicalsequence.1951,Tennessee Williams, “The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and Coffin”, inJohn Updike, Katrina Kennison, editors,The Best American Short Stories of the Century, published2000,→ISBN,page316:She talked so excitedly that shegot ahead of herselfand looked bewildered and cried out, "What was I saying?"2005, Christopher B. Sanford,Matthew: Christian Rabbi‎[3],→ISBN, page64:I think he justgot ahead of himselfin telling first of the arrest of John, then jumped back to the earlier baptism of Jesus.2011, Laura Schellhardt,Screenwriting for Dummies‎[4],→ISBN, page151:People often interrupt themselves mid-sentence. Why? Perhaps they're excited over something andget ahead of themselvesas they speak.

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