Anticipate spring -- what might be shot to accompany article? (4,3,3)
I believe the answer is:
jump the gun
'anticipate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'spring what might be shot to accompany article?' is the wordplay.
'spring' becomes 'jump' (synonyms).
'what might be shot' becomes 'gun' (you might shoot a gun).
'to accompany' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'article?' becomes 'the' (the definite article in English).
'gun' after 'the' is 'thegun'.
'jump'+'thegun'='JUMP THE GUN'
(Other definitions for jump the gun that I've seen before include "Be too hasty" , "Act prematurely" , "Start prematurely" , "Come too early out of the starting blocks?" , "Leave too early" .)