quick off the mark

Idioms  

1. Fast to start or try something, as in This physician is quick off the mark in trying the newest medications. This expression comes from various kinds of races, where mark indicates the starting point. It was being used figuratively from the mid-1900s on.

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Example Sentences

Warrington were quick off the mark at the Totally Wicked Stadium, with Ashton taking centre stage, against a side that had produced the performance of the quarter-finals by thrashing Catalans in Perpignan.

From BBC • May 19, 2024

Last week, Ucas chief executive Clare Marchant said students would have to be "quick off the mark" to get a place at a top university through clearing.

From BBC • Aug. 16, 2023

Emerging economies for the most part were quick off the mark in their battle against inflation, raising rates well before developed peers began to do so.

From Reuters • Jul. 5, 2022

Never let it be said that Disney is not quick off the mark when there’s a buck to be made.

From The Guardian • Jul. 25, 2020

We seldom were quick off the mark, And sprinting was never our game; But when it's insistence and hold-for-the-distance, We've never been beat at that same.

From The Guards Came Through and Other Poems by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir