come a long way

Idioms  

1. Make considerable progress or improvement, as in That's good, Rob—you've certainly come a long way. This usage, which transfers the “distance” of a long way to progress, gained considerable currency in the 1960s and 1970s in an advertising slogan for Virginia Slims cigarettes addressed especially to women: “You've come a long way, baby.”

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Example Sentences

The scrappy little steel-string acoustic has come a long way from the Arabic guit-tar, but like a cartoon character who gets blown to kingdom come or flattened by a steamroller yet returns to life a frame or two later, somehow this tough little guy seems to skate over every rough patch and emerge more robust than ever.

From The Wall Street Journal

The office holiday gathering itself has come a long way from the bacchanals I survived early in my career.

From The Wall Street Journal

"We've come a long way since then - we recognise the importance of looking at things in a much wider context."

From BBC

Having come a long way, they decided to launch their podcast, Becky and Ben's Fertility Spotlight, to share "the ups and downs" of their IVF journey to help other couples undergoing similar struggles.

From BBC

Blacksmith Paul Dennis has come a long way from that cowpat-filled shed and - at the same time - not gone very far at all.

From BBC