phrase

• 1British Push into a queue of people in order to be served or dealt with before one's turn.

  ‘he jumped the queue at the ticket counter’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Things get even more unbelievable when I am met by a minder at the airport and get to jump the queue to get my passport checked and suitcase scanned.’
  • ‘We realised when they started shouting that we must have jumped the queue, so Mark waved the taxi on rather than getting in.’
  • ‘Richard Kelly, prosecuting, said fists and hands flailed in a Chelmsford fish and chip shop early in the morning of December 21 when the three thought a man had jumped the queue.’
  • ‘Angry music fans were unable to buy tickets for the U2 concert in Manchester next year after a gang of up to 50 men jumped the queue.’
  • ‘A woman contacted police after she was punched in the face by a shopper claiming she had jumped the queue.’
  • ‘When we found someone to explain our situation, we were at first told to jump the queue, and then told that we would not make our flight.’
  • ‘If you've never been there before, just follow the sign, don't jump the queue and order your drink politely.’
  • ‘To be honest, if someone came into the loos and asked politely to jump the queue, I would rarely refuse.’
  • ‘Any person who tries to jump the queue by smiling, gesturing or otherwise trying to attract the bar person's attention will receive nothing except a polite smile in reply.’
  • ‘At one point the farmers got to fighting on the doorstep when one of them tried to jump the queue.’

  1. 1.1Take unfair precedence over others.
     ‘the old boy networks were one way of jumping the promotion queue’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Moves to prevent drifters jumping the queue for council homes in Scarborough have been rejected by housing officers as too complicated.’
     • ‘Because addicts who are sent to the drug court go on a methadone programme immediately, critics say criminals are jumping the queue.’
     • ‘But not only have they jumped the queue; they have turned public opinion against any kind of immigration.’
     • ‘Many are under the misunderstanding that if they arrive at casualty in an ambulance they'll jump the queue.’
     • ‘HMS Achilles was next in line for a refit - but the enemy submarine is in such bad shape it may have to jump the queue.’
     • ‘Bob was lucky that he had the funds to jump the queue and get treatment that was not available to people who do not have money.’
     • ‘In the case of medical care, I'd like to see an end of the private sector and people jumping the queue because they have more money than others.’
     • ‘Private clinics have popped up in several provinces, offering quicker diagnostic care for those willing to pay hundreds of dollars to jump the queue.’
     • ‘A decade later, at the EU Luxembourg summit, Turkey watched several former communist countries jump the queue, while it was not even considered a candidate for accession.’
     • ‘Asylum seekers, they say, are portrayed as no more than a nuisance, seen as jumping local authority housing queues, and causing a serious drain on the public purse.’