English Explanatory Dictionary

before you can say Jack Robinson

English dictionary entry

Meanings

phrase
  1. Very quickly; quicker than one expects.

Word forms

before you can say Jack Robinson

Etymology

Uncertain. There is some speculation that this is a reference to Sir John Robinson, the Lieutenant of the Tower of London from 1660 to 1680 and Lord Mayor of London in 1662, but there is nothing known about him that is associated with speed (Samuel Pepys called him as “a talking bragging bufflehead.”), and the phrase does not appear in print until 1778.

Synonyms

before you can say knife before you can say Jack Robertson in the twinkling of an eye in two shakes of a lamb's tail quick as a flash quick as a fox quick as lightning
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