jumping-off place

[juhm-ping-awf, -of]

noun

1. a place for use as a starting point.

   Paris was the jumping-off place for our tour of Europe.

2. an out-of-the-way place; the farthest limit of anything settled or civilized.

jumping-off place

noun

1. a starting point, as in an enterprise

2. a final or extreme condition

3. a place where one leaves civilization to go into the wilderness

4. a very remote spot

Word History and Origins

Origin of jumping-off place¹

An Americanism dating back to 1820–30

Example Sentences

A book was a big jumping-off place for me.

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Indeed, her husband, her parents and her career are the foundations of many stories, but “the real jumping-off place of the book is where I was let go from my job,” she explains.

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The practice dates back to the Gold Rush, when the city’s powerful attraction as a jumping-off place for Forty-Niners seeking their fortunes in the nearby hills generated an equally potent counter-narrative.

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This criteria as a jumping-off place naturally leads to a wildly diverse group of people.

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“Rely on seasonal greenery as a jumping-off place,” she says.

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