push the envelope

English

WOTD – 12 April 2021

Etymology

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.^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌpʊʃ ðiː ˈɛnvələʊp/, /-ˈɒnv(ə)ləʊp/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌpʊʃ ði ˈɛnvəˌloʊp/, /-ˈɑn-/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: push the en‧ve‧lope

Verb

push the envelope (third-person singular simple present pushes the envelope, present participle pushing the envelope, simple past and past participle pushed the envelope)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic, originally aeronautics) To go beyond established limits; to pioneer. [from mid 20th c.]

   Synonyms: push the edge of the envelope, stretch the envelope

   They pushed the envelope on pricing derivatives.

   • 1992, Popular Mechanics, volume 169, number 11, page 18:

     Aerial photography was coming into its own, and flying shutterbugs pushed the envelope, striving to outsnap each other.

   • 2007 November 29, Ross Douthat, “Pushing the Envelope”, in The Atlantic‎:

     This is basically why I’ve enjoyed the rise of Huckabee and Paul: Not because I agree with them on an issue-by-issue basis, but because they’re willing to push the envelope a bit, and expand the definition of what a conservative can stand for in ways that I think are ultimately healthy for the party.

   • 2013 July 11, Adam Pasick, “In Rapidly Aging Japan, Adult Diaper Sales Are About to Surpass Baby Diapers”, in The Atlantic‎:

     Marketing to consumers can still be a minefield […] but diaper manufacturers—confident that the embarrassment factor can be overcome—are determined to push the envelope.

   • 2024 April 3, Richard Foster, “Training the next generation of engineers”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 51:

     "You've got to keep pushing the envelope in terms of what else you can do," he says. "It's all about trying - to use that horrible management phrase - to 'sweat the asset'."

Translations

to go beyond established limits — see also pioneer

Finnish: koetella rajoja, rikkoa rajoja German: bis an die Grenze gehen Irish: iomairí nua a threabhadh Polish: jechać po bandzie impf Swedish: tänja på gränserna

See also

• raise the bar
• push it

References

1. “to push the envelope, phrase” under “push, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “push the envelope, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• flight envelope on Wikipedia.Wikipedia