To steal someone’s thunder

Meaning: Taking credit for someone’s idea or upstaging someone.

Back in the 1700s, technicians had several simple yet effective ways of making effects onstage. Thunder could be made by shaking thin sheets of metal and rolling metal balls down troughs. A failing playwright of the time named John Dennis came up with a new way where he used a bowl to roll the metal balls in instead of a trough.

People liked his skill, and when he attended a performance of Macbeth he noticed his new method was being ripped off. He is said to have jumped up and interrupted the show by shouting “the villains will not play my play, but they steal my thunder!”