push the envelope
verbEtymology
From push (“to continually exert oneself in order to achieve a goal”) + the + envelope (“set of limitations within which a technological system can perform safely and effectively”) (compare flight envelope), referring to the boundary line on a graph of an aircraft’s capabilities, especially those of altitude and speed. The term was popularized by the book The Right Stuff (1979) by the American author and journalist Tom Wolfe (1930–2018) about the pilots engaged in United States postwar research with experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft, and the first Project Mercury astronauts selected for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s human spaceflight program.
Definitions
To go beyond established limits
To go beyond established limits; to pioneer.
- They pushed the envelope on pricing derivatives.
- Aerial photography was coming into its own, and flying shutterbugs pushed the envelope, striving to outsnap each other.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for push the envelope. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA