on the jump

English

Prepositional phrase

on the jump

1. (Canada, US, informal) In a hurry.
   • 1915, Jack London·, The Little Lady of the Big House:

     Come on the jump. Bring the needful for first aid. It's a rifle shot through the lungs or heart or both.

   • 2021, Peter B. Kyne, Cappy Ricks Retires:

     Accordingly Sam Daniels was sent for and arrived on the jump.

   • 2021, Allen Chapman, Fred Fenton on the Crew:

     Everybody was on the jump, and it was a furious crowd that went rushing down toward where the new shell had been laid, along the shore of the river, at a point where a little beach offered an ideal spot for launching.

2. (Canada, US, informal, dated) Very busy; fully engaged in energetic activity; on the go.
   • 1892, E.V. Sumner, Annual Report of the Secretary of War, page 231:

     My cavalry is on the jump all the time and in every direction, as you know from having seen several detachments, and I will do my utmost to carry out orders and wishes of the authorities.

   • 1937, The New Outlook for the Blind - Volumes 31-32, page 198:

     Again she bemoans the inroad of interruptions, especially those of the "inexorable" telephone which keeps Polly on the jump.

   • 1938, Robert Greenhalgh Albion, Square-riggers on Schedule, page 142:

     There were many other jobs to be done during the day, for the traditional smartness of a packet was maintained only by keeping the crews constantly on the jump at times when, on an ordinary freighter, they might be taking life more easily.

   • 1999, Dwight David Eisenhower, Joseph P. Hobbs, George Catlett Marshall, Dear General: Eisenhower's Wartime Letters to Marshall, page 98:

     We have been kept on the jump to stabilize the situation and to maintain some mobile striking power as a general reserve both from defensive and local offensive affairs.

Further reading

• “on the jump”, in Collins English Dictionary.