ahead of (someone or something's) time

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Related to ahead of its time: time and again, time being

ahead of (someone or something's) time

More innovative than can be properly appreciated during the time that someone or something is producing such innovation. He was really ahead of his time with this music—critics in the 1970s just couldn't see it. That show was really ahead of its time tackling issues like that.

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ahead of time

Earlier than a given deadline. If we get to the theater ahead of time, we'll have our pick of good seats. My term paper isn't due until next week, but I finished it ahead of time.

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*ahead of one's time

Fig. having ideas or attitudes that are too advanced to be acceptable in the present. (*Typically: be ~; think ~.) Sue's grandmother was ahead of her time in wanting to study medicine.

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*ahead of time

beforehand; before the announced time. (*Typically: arrive ~; get there ~; leave ~; show up ~.) If you show up ahead of time, you will have to wait. Be there ahead of time if you want to get a good seat.

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ahead of time

Earlier, sooner, as in The meeting was scheduled for three o'clock, but most people arrived ahead of time. [Early 1900s]

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ahead of your/its time

COMMON If someone or something is ahead of their time, they have or show ideas that are so modern that most people have not accepted them yet. My mother was ahead of her time. She surrounded me with culture and art. The idea was too far ahead of its time, and had attracted some amusement locally. Note: You can also say that someone or something is before their time. His only mistake, he insists, is that he was 20 years before his time.

See also: ahead, of, time

ahead of your (or its) time

innovative and radical by the standards of the time.

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References in periodicals archive ?

Messier related how that vision was ahead of its time but stymied by the difficult global economic conditions following September 11.

USI's New York Corporate Real Estate Roundtable

In 1965, Donald Judd proclaimed Lee Bontecou "one of the best artists working anywhere." The sole woman in the early-'60s Castelli stable, Bontecou creatively bridged masculine and feminine, human and machine in her sculpture and drawing, exploring a kind of abstract cyborgian androgyny years ahead of its time. But by 1975, she dropped out, barely exhibiting since (though making new work all along) and refusing cooperation when others tried surveying her past.

Lee Bontecou

Jell-O was actually invented in 1897; in look, feel and convenience it was way ahead of its time. It has been used as the basis for art projects: paint, finger paint, play dough, sand art, dioramas and sculpture.

Wyman, Carolyn. Jell-O; a biography

From the outset Warp was different, partly due to its location, far from the style-conscious London scene, and partly due to its championing of music which was, and in some cases still is, ahead of its time. Warp was inspired by the early acid and techno sounds of Detroit and maybe the

DANCE CD OF THE WEEK

REGARDING the reader who wrote about our new Parliament building being ahead of its time and 'will be admired by tourists'.

Your view : Your texts

Brooklyn is kind of ahead of its time and the smart money is realizing it."

Prospect Park getting a makeover

"I think people think we did a gay show because it was so ahead of its time. Everybody was following it."

Gays go Maude

"Back then, an MLS was really an idea that was ahead of its time. The business was going well, and the brokers were reluctant to share information that was the source of their income.

A different kind of MLS

In every age a talent emerges that's so far ahead of its time, it can't be fully appreciated.