English edit

Prepositional phrase edit

behind the curve

  1. Out of date.
    Antonym: ahead of the curve
    • 1997 March 9, Paul Krugman, “Does Getting Old Cost Society Too Much?”, in The New York Times[1], →ISSN:
      But in his 1996 novel, Holy Fire, [Bruce] Sterling imagines a rather different future: a world ruled by an all-powerful gerontocracy, which appropriates most of the world's wealth to pay for ever more costly life-extension techniques. [] When the novel first came out, it seemed that Sterling was behind the curve.
    • 2010 February 4, Alan Ohnsman with Yuki Hagiwara, “Toyota Plans Media Blitz as Stock Loses $21 Billion”, in BusinessWeek:
      Toyota used to be a company with foresight, always ready to take action, but now they have fallen very far behind the curve.
  2. (US, military) Not making the progress required.

Translations edit