Wiktionary
vb. To advance toward success
WordNet
v. obtain advantages, such as points, etc.; "The home team was gaining ground"; "After defeating the Knicks, the Blazers pulled ahead of the Lakers in the battle for the number-one playoff berth in the Western Conference" [syn: gain, advance, win, pull ahead, make headway, gain ground] [ant: fall back]
grow stronger; "The economy was booming" [syn: boom, prosper, thrive, flourish, expand]
Wikipedia
Get Ahead was a BBC Television programme running from 1958 to 1962 which offered a prize of £5,000 (equivalent to c. £100,000 in 2011). This was awarded to a contestant's idea for an entrepreneurial project for a profitable business. It was an early forerunner of programs such as Dragons' Den on BBC2.
The program was sponsored by the News Chronicle, as a form of indirect advertising which would not have been permitted for commercial stations (such as ITV), as this was prohibited by the Television Act 1954.
The programme was presented by Peter West. A panel of senior business experts judged the merit of the award and included Sir Miles Thomas, who had been chairman of BOAC and the British offshoot of Monsanto, the American chemical company at the time.
Usage examples of "get ahead".
This town is situated about halfway between Moscow and Irkutsk, where it was necessary that he should arrive within ten days if he wished to get ahead of the Tartar columns.
One strove through school, university, working years to get ahead, to earn enough to put one's offspring through school and university.
He explained that I would never get ahead in the business world by doing what was expected of me.
That was the only way to get ahead: complete what was expected, and then exceed it wildly with a proactive initiative designed to build the business, and, in turn, my career.
I stopped before I reached the group around Queen Heida and let him get ahead all out of breath and sweating.
Fate is against them, people are out to get them, or they just haven't got what it takes--that they are too nice, too refined, too something or other--to get ahead in this dog-eat-dog world.
She leaves with the sailor in hopes of finding a better life for Elizabeth-Jane, and she returns to Henchard in hopes of helping the second Elizabeth-Jane get ahead in life.