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Please explain this sentence: “I was in the middle of putting this very same report together but was beaten to the punch.” What does “beaten to the punch” mean exactly? My comments: Someone else published the report first, that’s all. “I”, the speaker was writing a similar report, but someone else got the report out first. If it were a competition, our speaker would’ve lost the contest. Beaten to the punch, you see, is originally a sporting term, from boxing obviously. In boxing, two fighters are there to hit (punch) each other with their fists. And if one boxer is able to consistently beat the other to the punch, it means he (or she) always seems to land a hit first, and therefore, is the better boxer, being faster and more agile. Similarly in a 100 meters dash, the runner who beats all others to the finish line wins the race. In short, if people are doing something with a common goal, the one who reaches the goal first is said to have beaten others to it, it being the common goal. Or any shared objective, for that matter. In researching for this article, for example, I come across a story about Donald Trump beating his daughter Ivanka to the punch in announcing the birth of her son. Donald being Donald, he made sure he came out first in announcing the boy’s birth. Donald Trump is “a winner”, you know, as the Republican presidential candidate constantly reminds us. Donald…. well, never mind, here’s a bit of detail (Dad Saves Ivanka Trump The Trouble Of Announcing Baby News, by Holly Williams, ContactMusic.com, October 15, 2013): | 
