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 Literature

"I'll have a bed for you before you can say 'Jack Robinson.'"

From Project Gutenberg

"Now watch me find your old hat before you can say Jack Robinson fifty times," he boasted, as he started to hustle about.

From Project Gutenberg

A lighted candle put into a jar of oxygen blazes up directly and is consumed before you can say ‘Jack Robinson.’

From Project Gutenberg

I’ve got him out here in a box, and when the train comes he’s a-going to hop on board before you can say Jack Robinson.”

From Project Gutenberg