ahead of one's time

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Idioms and Phrases

In advance of current ideas, customs, or methods, as in His treatment of light showed this painter to be well ahead of his time , or Wearing trousers and smoking cigars marked Amy Lowell as a woman ahead of her time . This idiom uses time in the sense of “era” or “generation,” a usage at least a thousand years old. The phrase is usually but not always used to express approval. [First half of 1900s]

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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