jumping-off place

jumping-off place

1. The point at which something begins. I know you're unhappy with their offer, so just consider it a jumping-off place and come up with a counteroffer.
2. A very distant location, possibly the farthest possible one. I know where the explorers on that expedition started, but what was their jumping-off place?
See also: place
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

jumping-off place

1. A starting point for a journey or venture, as in This tiny village is the jumping-off place for our trek into the desert. This usage probably alludes to jumping into the water. [Early 1800s]
2. A very remote spot; also, the last place to be reached. For example, This was the jumping-off point for the first gold miners in Alaska. [Early 1800s]
See also: place
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • jumping-off point
  • disgusted
  • disgusted at
  • disgusted at (someone or something)
  • disgusted with
  • disgusted with (someone or something)
  • find (one's) calling
  • dissatisfied
  • dissatisfied with
  • dissatisfied with (someone or something)
References in periodicals archive
The use of one or two lines of dry chronicle as a jumping-off place for a multipage commentary of lively narrative strikes an original note on the contemporary literary scene, yet is reminiscent of the engaging dramatized commentaries on the insipid Confucian classic The Spring and Autumn Chronicle, such as The Zuo Commentary.
I started more and more using book reviews -as a kind of jumping-off place for my own reflections.
In 1970, Don and I camped in the desert in Baja California near the ruin of San Juan de Dios de las Yagas, which had been the jumping-off place for Father Junipero Serra before he founded all those missions in California.
For those who can stay awhile (and why hurry to leave?) Portland is a fine jumping-off place for a longer vacation.
Acting Gay offers a witty and observant commentary on how homosexuality operates within the theatrical scene and will provide a useful jumping-off place for critics of a more systematic bent.
When, in 1896, gold was found in the Yukon to the north, Skagway's natural harbor made it a jumping-off place for gold seekers, gold diggers, saloonkeepers, and bunco artists.
11, 2001, and he is stationed at Fort Bragg, which I think everyone knows is a jumping-off place for Afghanistan.
Eight chapters are: the early Black presence in the West; on the eve of overland migration: antebellum slavery and freedom; the jumping-off places; the providential corridor; community and work on the trails;/ life, death, and acts of kindness; sweet freedomAEs plains; place of promise; epilogue.
Rather than using great literature as jumping-off places for students to gain confidence and engagement as readers, the literacy programs use short texts, each about 10 to 15 pages long, accompanied by leveled readers.
We are not told that eight pounds of meat per man per day was the staple ration for voyageurs who provided the muscle power to jumping-off places for northern exploration, nor that Franklin because famous as "the man who ate his shoes" (moccasins had some nutritious value because proteins had not been denatured by tanning).
I have seen them come to the "jumping-off places" of the North, these men whereof I speak.