jump ship

present singular third person jumps ship · participle present jumping ship · participle past jumped ship · past jumped ship

1. nauticalTo depart from a ship, especially without permission.

   As soon as the battleship docked in Singapore, Roger jumped ship, never to return.

2. figurativelyTo leave something, especially suddenly or rapidly.

   I couldn't hack it as a teacher, so I jumped ship and flew back to Australia.

   1 more example

   The few stalwarts praising the prime minister’s non-remorse today will be of small comfort to him, given their ranks include Ann Widdecombe and Patrick O’Flynn of the Express, while another of their ilk, the Telegraph’s Allison Pearson, has jumped ship altogether.

   2022 January 13, Polly Toynbee, “Finally the Tory papers have caught on that Johnson is a liar – what kept them?”, in The Guardian