jumping-off place
Americannoun
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a place for use as a starting point.
Paris was the jumping-off place for our tour of Europe.
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an out-of-the-way place; the farthest limit of anything settled or civilized.
noun
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a starting point, as in an enterprise
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a final or extreme condition
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a place where one leaves civilization to go into the wilderness
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a very remote spot
Etymology
Origin of jumping-off place
An Americanism dating back to 1820–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Lots of visitors come through here in the summer because it is a jumping off place for trips into the Brooks Range.
From Scientific American • Apr. 10, 2012
It gives Japan a better jumping off place toward the oil-rich Netherlands Indies than it has ever had before.
From Time Magazine Archive
Wheeling, in the days of the great hegira to the West, was considered to be the end of Eastern civilization and the jumping off place into the great Indian country.
From Time Magazine Archive
"The jumping off place," muttered Tom, as at the command of the lieutenant the detachment paused for a short rest.
From Army Boys on German Soil Our Doughboys Quelling the Mobs by Randall, Homer
They detrained at night, in the rain, at what the men said seemed to be the jumping off place.
From One of Ours by Cather, Willa Sibert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
