"down the road" meaning in English

See down the road in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: en-au-down the road.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} down the road, {{en-prep phrase}} down the road
  1. (idiomatic) Further along, in terms of time or progress. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: down the line, down the track, later on
    Sense id: en-down_the_road-en-prep_phrase-CX1pMAsU
  2. (slang) Dismissed; fired from one's employment. Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-down_the_road-en-prep_phrase--Um93WxO Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 39 52 9
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see down, road. Derived forms: down the road, not across the street Related terms: kick the can down the road
    Sense id: en-down_the_road-en-prep_phrase-tpA0EgRc

Download JSON data for down the road meaning in English (3.4kB)

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  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "down the road",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "down the road",
      "name": "en-prep phrase"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They decided to save money by using the cheapest components available, but down the road they ran into problems with reliability.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 March 31, David Gow, “Ten years down the road: car giant foresees the non-polluting, accident-proof saloon”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "Ten years down the road: car giant foresees the non-polluting, accident-proof saloon [title]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 February 26, Francis S. Collins, Harold Varmus, “A New Initiative on Precision Medicine”, in The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 372, number 9, →DOI, page 795",
          "text": "Although the precision medicine initiative will probably yield its greatest benefits years down the road, there should be some notable near-term successes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Further along, in terms of time or progress."
      ],
      "id": "en-down_the_road-en-prep_phrase-CX1pMAsU",
      "links": [
        [
          "Further",
          "further"
        ],
        [
          "along",
          "along"
        ],
        [
          "time",
          "time"
        ],
        [
          "progress",
          "progress"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Further along, in terms of time or progress."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "down the line"
        },
        {
          "word": "down the track"
        },
        {
          "word": "later on"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "39 52 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1977, Mother Jones Magazine, volume 2, number 4, page 65",
          "text": "Those dudes framed a full side wall a foot too high and it was clearly marked on the layout. They got sent down the road — and deserved it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, United States. National Labor Relations Board, Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, page 517",
          "text": "[…] not only did he observe Doran and Angle drinking beer during the lunch, but also he said right then to both, \"Look don't do it in front of me. I just got up here. It's company policy, you know. Any other time you're going to be sent down the road.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Dismissed; fired from one's employment."
      ],
      "id": "en-down_the_road-en-prep_phrase--Um93WxO",
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          "dismissed"
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          "fire",
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          "employment"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) Dismissed; fired from one's employment."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 0 100",
          "word": "down the road, not across the street"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "There's a shop down the road that sells a few basic necessities.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see down, road."
      ],
      "id": "en-down_the_road-en-prep_phrase-tpA0EgRc",
      "links": [
        [
          "down",
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        [
          "road",
          "road#English"
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      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 0 100",
          "word": "kick the can down the road"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-down the road.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/89/En-au-down_the_road.ogg/En-au-down_the_road.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/En-au-down_the_road.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "down the road"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
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  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "down the road, not across the street"
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
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    {
      "word": "kick the can down the road"
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        {
          "text": "They decided to save money by using the cheapest components available, but down the road they ran into problems with reliability.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 March 31, David Gow, “Ten years down the road: car giant foresees the non-polluting, accident-proof saloon”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "Ten years down the road: car giant foresees the non-polluting, accident-proof saloon [title]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015 February 26, Francis S. Collins, Harold Varmus, “A New Initiative on Precision Medicine”, in The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 372, number 9, →DOI, page 795",
          "text": "Although the precision medicine initiative will probably yield its greatest benefits years down the road, there should be some notable near-term successes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Further along, in terms of time or progress."
      ],
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        [
          "Further",
          "further"
        ],
        [
          "along",
          "along"
        ],
        [
          "time",
          "time"
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        [
          "progress",
          "progress"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Further along, in terms of time or progress."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "down the line"
        },
        {
          "word": "down the track"
        },
        {
          "word": "later on"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
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    {
      "categories": [
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1977, Mother Jones Magazine, volume 2, number 4, page 65",
          "text": "Those dudes framed a full side wall a foot too high and it was clearly marked on the layout. They got sent down the road — and deserved it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1989, United States. National Labor Relations Board, Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, page 517",
          "text": "[…] not only did he observe Doran and Angle drinking beer during the lunch, but also he said right then to both, \"Look don't do it in front of me. I just got up here. It's company policy, you know. Any other time you're going to be sent down the road.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Dismissed; fired from one's employment."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
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          "dismissed"
        ],
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          "fire",
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        ],
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) Dismissed; fired from one's employment."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
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    {
      "categories": [
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "There's a shop down the road that sells a few basic necessities.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see down, road."
      ],
      "links": [
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          "down",
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        ],
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          "road",
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  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-down the road.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/89/En-au-down_the_road.ogg/En-au-down_the_road.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/En-au-down_the_road.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "down the road"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.

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