/ˈkɪk ðə ˈkæn daʊn ðə ˈɹəʊd/
English idiom, informal. To keep putting something off instead of dealing with it.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use Kick the can down the road
?
Mostly heard in politics, business and news writing, usually as criticism: “Congress keeps kicking the can down the road.” It’s about delaying a hard decision so someone else has to deal with it later, often more than once. In everyday speech “put it off” is more common.
Also said kick the can
Kick the can down the road
in real sentences
-
I’m not trying to kick the can or anything, but let’s talk about this tomorrow.
Tatoeba, sentence by Teangloir, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Kick the can down the road
come from?
English Wiktionary quotes the literal act of youths kicking a can down a road from a London paper in 1877. The figurative “delay a decision” sense shows up in American political reporting in 1983, about the MX missile program, and it spread from there. Whether it comes from the children’s game “kick the can” or just the picture of nudging a can along without picking it up isn’t recorded.
Mistakes learners make with Kick the can down the road
Learners confuse it with “kick the bucket” (to die) because both have “kick the” and a container. Keep “can” and “down the road” together.
Other English idioms like Kick the can down the road
Spot a mistake in Kick the can down the road
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.