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jumping-off place

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

a point on a trail, waterway, etc. where the route changes in nature or direction, marking a new leg of the journey.

See: leavings

Quotations

1887

At last we came to a "jumping off" place, and here the trail turned sharply down. . . .

1934

. . . the village at the rapids' head continued to be the "jumping off place" for the canoe brigades. . . .

1958

Beautiful Tay Bay [is the] jumping-off place for the Tuck harbor. . . .

2a — Esp. North

a place, usually a town, where one leaves the railway or other link with civilization to proceed into the wilderness.

See: jumping-off point(def. 1),jumping-off spot,jumping-off town,jump-off point,kicking-off place

Quotations

1903

Were you . . . to be transported direct to it from the heart of the city, you could not fail to recognize it. "The jumping-off place!" you would cry ecstatically, and turn with unerring instinct to the Aromatic Shop.

1951

The end of steel! The jumping-off place! Dawson Creek, British Columbia, was these.

1963

The nearest town is The Pas, in Manitoba, famous as a jumping-off place for Hudson Bay.

any starting place.

See: jumping-off point(def. 2)

Quotations

<i>c</i>1939

I walked from Carleton Shore to the "jumping-off-place" of the new cable.

3†

any place considered the ultimate in isolated, undeveloped wilderness.

Quotations

1922

"But I can't see de Lo'd's hand in dis racket. It doan seems nat'ral to me fo' de Lo'd to let King George lose a good an' beau'ful country, an' den gib him sich a jumpin'-off place as dis instead. . . ."

1937

Archdeacon Stuck described Herschel Island during the whaling period as "the world's last jumping-off place, where no law existed and no writs ran".