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Jimmy Hung
2022-03-12 11:03
Steal (one's) thunder verb phrase
To steal the attention or praise that one had been expecting or receiving for some accomplishment, announcement, etc.
I was planning to surprise my parents by announcing that I was pregnant but Sally stole my thunder.
When John was performing magic tricks on the street, a strange man came and stole John's thunder by revealing how those tricks were employed.
To take one's idea, plan, or intellectual property without permission and use it for profit or some benefit
We need to upgrade the system to prevent someone from stealing our thunder.
The verb "steal" must be conjugated according to its tense.
This term may be derived from an early-eighteenth-century event. For his play Appius and Virginia, British playwright John Dennis devised a novel technique to imitate the sound of thunder. The play, however, was a failure and was quickly shut down. Soon later, Dennis went to watch another company's presentation of Macbeth and discovered that they had stolen his thunder sound concept. He accused them of stealing his thunder.
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