before you can say Jack Robinson

Idioms  

1. Also, quicker than you can say Jack Robinson. Almost immediately, very soon, as in I'll finish this book before you can say Jack Robinson. This expression originated in the 1700s, but the identity of Jack Robinson has been lost. Grose's Classical Dictionary (1785) said he was a man who paid such brief visits to acquaintances that there was scarcely time to announce his arrival before he had departed, but it gives no further documentation. A newer version is before you know it, meaning so soon that you don't have time to become aware of it (as in He'll be gone before you know it).

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Example Sentences

Both of them start real, real small and then ... woop, zoop, sloop ... before you can say Jack Robinson they’ve gone and grown a lot bigger than you ever thought they could.

From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Look at him now—he's on the quarterdeck and will be down in the cabins before you can say Jack Robinson.

From Agatha Webb by Green, Anna Katharine

No, sir; we'll have your brown horse before you can say Jack Robinson.

From Nick of the Woods by Bird, Robert M.

Let anything happen and they are off to confide it to some one before you can say Jack Robinson.

From Walter and the Wireless by Stecher, William F. (William Frederick)

I'll have you as snug as a bug in a rug before you can say Jack Robinson.

From The Prince of Graustark by McCutcheon, George Barr