pull ahead

English

pull ahead (third-person singular simple present pulls ahead, present participle pulling ahead, simple past and past participle pulled ahead)

(idiomatic, intransitive) To move into a winning position (e.g. in a race or competition).
After being neck-and-neck the whole race, Gibbs managed to pull ahead in the final lap.
- 2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 7:26 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron‎^[1], archived from the original on 29 November 2024:
  The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act had abolished slavery completely in the British Empire, and this, along with the fact that the Empire's military and economic might was beginning to pull even further ahead of other nations', thanks in part to the Industrial Revolution, saw the squadron expand to around twenty-five ships (regularly having to be swapped out because of the high incidence of tropical disease) […]