beat to the punch

English

Verb

beat to the punch

(transitive) To do something before somebody else is able to.
I was planning to take care of the problem for him, but he beat me to the punch and did it himself.

Derived terms

beat to

Translations

to do something before somebody else can

French: devancer (fr)
Russian: упреди́ть (ru) n (upredítʹ), опереди́ть (ru) n (operedítʹ)

Spanish: ganar de mano, anticipar (es)

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