"can kicker" meaning in English

See can kicker in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: can kickers [plural]
Etymology: Can kicking attested as an activity of idle urban youths since the late 19th century. Modern sense of "procrastinate" dates from the 1980s. Head templates: {{en-noun}} can kicker (plural can kickers)
  1. Someone or something who is can kicking or who kicks the can down the road. I.e. someone or something who is adept at delaying things, putting off a difficult issue or decision, typically on a continual basis. For example, 'The US and Europe should be glad to be led by a bunch of can-kickers'.
    Sense id: en-can_kicker-en-noun-YqFOZHLV Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Can kicking attested as an activity of idle urban youths since the late 19th century. Modern sense of \"procrastinate\" dates from the 1980s.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "can kickers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "can kicker (plural can kickers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Someone or something who is can kicking or who kicks the can down the road. I.e. someone or something who is adept at delaying things, putting off a difficult issue or decision, typically on a continual basis. For example, 'The US and Europe should be glad to be led by a bunch of can-kickers'."
      ],
      "id": "en-can_kicker-en-noun-YqFOZHLV",
      "links": [
        [
          "can kicking",
          "can-kicking"
        ],
        [
          "kicks the can down the road",
          "kick the can down the road"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "can kicker"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Can kicking attested as an activity of idle urban youths since the late 19th century. Modern sense of \"procrastinate\" dates from the 1980s.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "can kickers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "can kicker (plural can kickers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Someone or something who is can kicking or who kicks the can down the road. I.e. someone or something who is adept at delaying things, putting off a difficult issue or decision, typically on a continual basis. For example, 'The US and Europe should be glad to be led by a bunch of can-kickers'."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "can kicking",
          "can-kicking"
        ],
        [
          "kicks the can down the road",
          "kick the can down the road"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "can kicker"
}

Download raw JSONL data for can kicker meaning in English (1.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (fef8596 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.