on the mark

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Prepositional phrase

on the mark

1. (idiomatic) Precisely accurate; correct or appropriate.
   • 1989 Feb. 12, Beverly Lowry, "Books: Everyone is somebody's child" (review of Equal Affections by David Leavitt), New York Times (retrieved 14 Sept 2017):

     The writing was often good, his feel for characters on the mark, but the book was wordy.

   • 2013 June 7, Phillip Inman, "9 reasons Keynesians aren't winning the argument," Guardian (UK) (retrieved 14 Sept 2017):

     Three eminent mainstream British economists told MPs . . . that the government had struck the right balance between cuts and spending. Austerity is bang on the mark, they said.

   • 2016 June 25, Joel Connelly, "Older, grayer, battle-scarred Obama still 'fired up, ready to go'," Seattle Post-Intelligencer (retrieved 14 Sept 2017):

     The Republicans haven't always been on the mark with doomsday predictions about Democratic presidents.

Synonyms

• bang on
• on the money

Antonyms

• off the mark
• wide of the mark

Translations

precisely accurate

• Greek:

  Ancient: εὔστοχος (eústokhos)

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