I need to have a leg up on him somewhere."

When it came to matters of life and death, Theo seemed to have a leg up on everybody.

In the loan business, credit unions also have a leg up on the competition.

When he returned to China after high school, she said, he would have a leg up on many others.

"With this program, Team Green will have a leg up on our competition."

This year, with a record of 21-1, they seem finally to have a leg up on Lincoln (18-4).

Still, they may have a leg up on the thousands of other filmmakers looking for a distributor.

"I would guess Bush has a leg up on all of us in terms of organization, and that's important," he said.

But at least they had a leg up on the freshmen who arrive clueless a few days later.

If they can run the table through this early stretch, they will have a leg up on another division championship.

Further, it has a leg up on its competition by changing 30 percent of its product lineup each season.

But he added that Pan American would have a leg up on any other potential suitors.

And the whip has a leg up on someday becoming Speaker of the House.

Whether or not that's the case, a mentally and emotionally limber trainer certainly has a leg up on his peers.

Emotiv has a leg up on an intuitive interface for video games.

In that sense, Tex has a leg up on everybody because of his Boeing background."

Unusual names, moreover - shrapnel, lynch - have a leg up on common names like Smith.

If you could take care of yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually, you had a leg up on most of the world.

Musicals Tonite may have a leg up on the government agency by offering actors a forum, he said.

At earlier Reagan-Gorbachev meetings, he said, "the Soviets had a leg up on us in having people available" for interviews.

Televisa, with its close ties to Univision, may have a leg up on other potential suitors.

Here he'd been thinking he had a leg up on Caber- an arena, no matter how small or insignificant, in which he could outshine the guy.

We just have a leg up on seeing things more clearly than other people, and being able to use the extra information we have for our benefit.

"Every time you think you have a leg up on it," Mr. Au said of his climb toward recovery, "another thing happens."

And the contractor's engineers will see all the technology and have a leg up on bids for second- and third-generation gear."