set the pace

Meaning

1. 1

   to do sth at a particular speed or to a particular standard so that other people are then forced to copy it if they want to be successful

   The company is no longer setting the pace in the home computer market.

2. 2

   to run faster than the other people taking part, at a speed that they then try to copy

In the movies · 3

• Don't let him set the pace, Jimmy!Cinderella Man2005
• So, you set the pace with Hume, the stroke.The Boys in the Boat2023
• His birth would set the pace for his unlik ely life.Big Fish2003

From the same entry

• go through your paces
• keep pace
• off the pace
• put through their paces
• force the pace
• at a snail's pace
• pace off