puddle-jump

English

Noun

puddle-jump (plural puddle-jumps)

1. (usually attributive) Alternative form of puddle jump
   1. A short airplane flight
      • 1947, American Aviation - Volume 11, page 25:

        We've waited longer than that for space for a puddle-jump in the U. S.

      • 1995, George P. Schwartz, Shareholder rebellion:

        And the flight was a long puddle-jump: three-and-a-half hours to Marquette (another Upper Peninsula town), and a layover there before continuing to Hancock.

      • 2006, Surfer - Volume 47, Issues 4-6:

        The cheap-ticketed puddle-jump makes skipping down to PF, a perfect battery charger, but with gaping barrels, tropical water and a tenth of the scene that Hawaii attracts, it's not a bad go for those Westerners willing to endure a sight.

   2. A short trip by boat.
      • 1986, Valerie Fons, Keep it Moving: Baja by Canoe, page 132:

        It was no puddle-jump to the next harbor — the water route curved north and west around a peninsula of land marked Punta Eugenia.

   3. A small difference.
      • 2007, Eileen Daniel, Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Health and Society, →ISBN, page 265:

        Many baseball players have openly used androstenedione, a muscle-building compound that major league baseball hasn't banned even though it's merely a molecular puddle-jump from anabolic steroids.

Verb

puddle-jump (third-person singular simple present puddle-jumps, present participle puddle-jumping, simple past and past participle puddle-jumped)

1. Alternative form of puddle jump
   1. To take a short flight.
      • 1984, Tony Chiu, Realm Seven, page 117:

        Or suppose at that early hour he'd been forced to fly into Chicago; would he puddle-jump in on a commuter flight or rent a car for the four-hour drive?

      • 1993, Harvard Business School Bulletin - Volume 69, page 40:

        Is there any chance you all can puddle-jump to the reunion?

   2. To jump over or into puddles.
      • 2016, David J. Lynden, Fluid with God, →ISBN:

        God wades through the oceans (Job 38:16) like a schoolboy might puddle-jump in his rubber boots while the stars sing at the sunrise of a new day (Job 38:7).

   3. To take a short trip by boat
      • 1952, Electronics - Volume 25, page 97:

        Since we normally puddle-jump close inshore, what is needed is one that puts out a nice narrow pencil of ultrasonic energy ahead.

      • 1966, MotorBoating - Sep 1966, page 16:

        That you can handle a small runabout is no indication you can skipper a twin-screw yacht; that you can puddle-jump on bay is no indication you can run an inlet.

   4. To move a small distance; to go from one small thing to another.
      • 1993, Pat Roessle Materka, Time in, time out, time enough: a time management guide for women:

        Without a clear set of objectives and a plan for achieving them, you can only puddle-jump from one task to another, leaving lots of things half finished.