Idiom
Jump ship
To jump ship is to suddenly leave a job, team, group or plan, often to join a rival or when things get difficult.
How people use it
It often describes employees leaving for a competitor or members leaving a failing group: two top engineers jumped ship to a startup. It can suggest disloyalty or simply good timing, depending on the speaker. People also jump ship from a band, a project or a TV show they stop watching. It is informal and common in business news.
Examples
- Half the staff jumped ship when the company announced pay cuts.
- Priya jumped ship from her old firm to start her own design studio.
- Don't jump ship now; the project is almost finished.
Where it comes from
It comes from sailing. A sailor who jumped ship left the ship without permission before his time of service was over, often slipping away in a port. The figurative sense of abandoning any job or group became common in the 1900s.
Check yourself
1. What does it mean if an employee jumps ship?
Answer: They leave suddenly for something else. Jump ship means leaving a job or group abruptly.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: When the team kept losing, their star player jumped ship to a rival club.. The idiom means leaving, so staying thirty years is the opposite.
Similar idioms
Word game fan? See every word hiding in SHIP.