Word.ws English Dictionary

hitting the ground running

hitting the ground running is the present participle and gerund of hit the ground running.

Meaning of hit the ground running

Verb

hit the ground running (third-person singular simple present hits the ground running, present participle hitting the ground running, simple past and past participle hit the ground running)

  1. (idiomatic) To begin an activity immediately and with full commitment.
    • Employers these days look for candidates that can hit the ground running, so that they spend less on training.

Questions about hitting the ground running

What is hitting the ground running the present participle and gerund of?
Hitting the ground running is the present participle and gerund of hit the ground running.

Words near hitting the ground running in the dictionary

  1. hitting the dirt
  2. hitting the fan
  3. hitting the floor
  4. hitting the gas
  5. hitting the gold
  6. hitting the ground running
  7. hitting the gym
  8. hitting the hay
  9. hitting the head
  10. hitting the headlines
  11. hitting the high notes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hitting the ground running (page history and authors); hit the ground running (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “hitting the ground running.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hitting_the_ground_running. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.