puddle-jump

plural puddle-jumps

1. Alternative form of puddle jump.
   1. attributiveusuallyA short airplane flight

      We've waited longer than that for space for a puddle-jump in the U. S.

      1947, American Aviation - Volume 11, page 25

      2 more examples

      And the flight was a long puddle-jump: three-and-a-half hours to Marquette (another Upper Peninsula town), and a layover there before continuing to Hancock.

      1995, George P. Schwartz, Shareholder rebellion

      The cheap-ticketed puddle-jump makes skipping down to PF, a perfect battery charger, but with gaping barrels, tropical water and a tenth of the scene that Hawaii attracts, it's not a bad go for those Westerners willing to endure a sight.

      2006, Surfer - Volume 47, Issues 4-6

   2. attributiveusuallyA short trip by boat.

      It was no puddle-jump to the next harbor — the water route curved north and west around a peninsula of land marked Punta Eugenia.

      1986, Valerie Fons, Keep it Moving: Baja by Canoe, page 132

   3. attributiveusuallyA small difference.

      Many baseball players have openly used androstenedione, a muscle-building compound that major league baseball hasn't banned even though it's merely a molecular puddle-jump from anabolic steroids.

      2007, Eileen Daniel, Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Health and Society, →ISBN, page 265

present singular third person puddle-jumps · participle present puddle-jumping · participle past puddle-jumped · past puddle-jumped

1. Alternative form of puddle jump.
   1. To take a short flight.

      Is there any chance you all can puddle-jump to the reunion?

      1993, Harvard Business School Bulletin - Volume 69, page 40

      1 more example

      Or suppose at that early hour he'd been forced to fly into Chicago; would he puddle-jump in on a commuter flight or rent a car for the four-hour drive?

      1984, Tony Chiu, Realm Seven, page 117

   2. To jump over or into puddles.

      God wades through the oceans (Job 38:16) like a schoolboy might puddle-jump in his rubber boots while the stars sing at the sunrise of a new day (Job 38:7).

      2016, David J. Lynden, Fluid with God, →ISBN

   3. To take a short trip by boat

      Since we normally puddle-jump close inshore, what is needed is one that puts out a nice narrow pencil of ultrasonic energy ahead.

      1952, Electronics - Volume 25, page 97

      1 more example

      That you can handle a small runabout is no indication you can skipper a twin-screw yacht; that you can puddle-jump on bay is no indication you can run an inlet.

      1966, MotorBoating - Sep 1966, page 16

   4. To move a small distance; to go from one small thing to another.

      Without a clear set of objectives and a plan for achieving them, you can only puddle-jump from one task to another, leaving lots of things half finished.

      1993, Pat Roessle Materka, Time in, time out, time enough: a time management guide for women