off and running

An allusion to the beginning of a footrace or horse race, when competitors rush forth out of the starting blocks or gate.

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

off and running (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) Launched or launching vigorously into a course of action.
   • 2000 July 24, Felicity Barringer, “Running on Adrenaline And Ideology at The Post”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 April 2015:

     But both newspapers made the same point. . . . And so the story was off and running.

   • 2007 October 27, Jessica Au, “When Movies Follow The Storm”, in Newsweek, retrieved 16 April 2015:

     The train won't budge, but the film that this scene opens, the Kafkaesque Romanian comedy "California Dreamin'," is off and running.

   • 2014 December 14, Jay Fitzgerald, “Economic recovery starts gaining steam”, in Boston Globe, retrieved 16 April 2015:

     [T]he recovery seems to have entered a new stage in recent months. “We’re finally off and running,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

• off to the races