beat to the punch

English

Verb

beat to the punch

1. (transitive) To do something before somebody else is able to.

   I was planning to take care of the problem for him, but he beat me to the punch and did it himself.

Derived terms

• beat to

Translations

to do something before somebody else can

• French: devancer (fr)
• Russian: упреди́ть (ru) n (upredítʹ), опереди́ть (ru) n (operedítʹ)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: ganar de mano, anticipar (es)