See kick the can down the road in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for kick the can down the road meaning in English (5.6kB)
{
"etymology_text": "Attested as an activity of idle urban youths since the late 19th century. Modern sense of \"procrastinate\" dates from the 1980s.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "kicks the can down the road",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "kicking the can down the road",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "kicked the can down the road",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "kicked the can down the road",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "kick the can down the road (third-person singular simple present kicks the can down the road, present participle kicking the can down the road, simple past and past participle kicked the can down the road)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
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"source": "w"
},
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"Entry maintenance"
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},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Undetermined quotations with omitted translation",
"parents": [
"Quotations with omitted translation",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1983 April 5, “Will MX Succeed This Time?”, in Bennington Banner, Bennington, VT, page 8",
"text": "Ronald Lehman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategic and theater nuclear bombs, said the United States was satisfied with its land-based deterrent for many years and \"there was a tendency to kick the can down the road and not pay enough attention to its problems.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1983 April 10, Jeff Nesmith, Andrew Alexander, “Will End to MX Stalemate Provide Long-Term Solution?”, in The Post, volume l, number 15, West Palm Beach, FL, page A10",
"text": "To continue haggling over points on which a consensus seems impossible, Lehman said, is to \"just keep kicking the can down the road.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1997 December 13, F. Stephen Larrabee, Richard Sokolsky, “In a New World, NATO Must Retool Its Strategic Concept”, in The International Herald Tribune",
"text": "[R]eaching an alliance-wide consensus on them will be difficult. […] The natural temptation is to cling to the status quo, tinker on the edges or kick the can down the road.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2013 September 27, “Pakistan: kicking the can down the road”, in The Guardian",
"text": "Fundamentalism is a product of decades of official complicity, cowardice and appeasement. Sooner or later, Mr Sharif will be forced to realise that. Until then, he is merely kicking the can down the road.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Aaron R. Dinner, editor, Proceedings of the 240 Conference: Science's Great Challenges, John Wiley & Sons, page 132",
"text": "[…] one might easily despair and kick the can down the road by waiting for the next generation of computers and physical and chemical probes that can be employed for in situ measurements of chemical processes before starting to implement the research program described.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2019 December 18, Nigel Harris, “180 years of tragedy and progress”, in Rail, page 62",
"text": "It could not have more obvious that ATC was urgently needed - yet all the new Labour Government did was make vague promises of reviews and 'consideration'. It kicked the can down the road, as did subsequent governments.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2023 May 18, Christina Jewett, “F.D.A. Panel Recommends R.S.V. Vaccine to Protect Young Infants”, in The New York Times",
"text": "“That was a big missed opportunity and I feel it’s unfair that we kicked the can down the road to the larger public,” said Dr. El Sahly, who voted “no” to the question about whether the safety data was adequate.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To avoid or postpone a decision or action; to procrastinate."
],
"id": "en-kick_the_can_down_the_road-en-verb-xvS~JQy1",
"links": [
[
"avoid",
"avoid"
],
[
"postpone",
"postpone"
],
[
"procrastinate",
"procrastinate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To avoid or postpone a decision or action; to procrastinate."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "carry the can"
},
{
"word": "kick at the can"
},
{
"word": "kick into the long grass"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "procrastinate"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "udsætte problemet"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "vitkastella"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "pelleter par en avant"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "utsette problemet"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "enrolar"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "huir hacia delante"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-kick the can down the road.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d7/En-au-kick_the_can_down_the_road.ogg/En-au-kick_the_can_down_the_road.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/En-au-kick_the_can_down_the_road.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "kick the can down the road"
}
{
"etymology_text": "Attested as an activity of idle urban youths since the late 19th century. Modern sense of \"procrastinate\" dates from the 1980s.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "kicks the can down the road",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "kicking the can down the road",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "kicked the can down the road",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "kicked the can down the road",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "kick the can down the road (third-person singular simple present kicks the can down the road, present participle kicking the can down the road, simple past and past participle kicked the can down the road)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "carry the can"
},
{
"word": "kick at the can"
},
{
"word": "kick into the long grass"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English predicates",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"English terms with quotations",
"English verbs",
"Translation table header lacks gloss",
"Undetermined quotations with omitted translation",
"Undetermined terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1983 April 5, “Will MX Succeed This Time?”, in Bennington Banner, Bennington, VT, page 8",
"text": "Ronald Lehman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategic and theater nuclear bombs, said the United States was satisfied with its land-based deterrent for many years and \"there was a tendency to kick the can down the road and not pay enough attention to its problems.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1983 April 10, Jeff Nesmith, Andrew Alexander, “Will End to MX Stalemate Provide Long-Term Solution?”, in The Post, volume l, number 15, West Palm Beach, FL, page A10",
"text": "To continue haggling over points on which a consensus seems impossible, Lehman said, is to \"just keep kicking the can down the road.\"",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1997 December 13, F. Stephen Larrabee, Richard Sokolsky, “In a New World, NATO Must Retool Its Strategic Concept”, in The International Herald Tribune",
"text": "[R]eaching an alliance-wide consensus on them will be difficult. […] The natural temptation is to cling to the status quo, tinker on the edges or kick the can down the road.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2013 September 27, “Pakistan: kicking the can down the road”, in The Guardian",
"text": "Fundamentalism is a product of decades of official complicity, cowardice and appeasement. Sooner or later, Mr Sharif will be forced to realise that. Until then, he is merely kicking the can down the road.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2014, Aaron R. Dinner, editor, Proceedings of the 240 Conference: Science's Great Challenges, John Wiley & Sons, page 132",
"text": "[…] one might easily despair and kick the can down the road by waiting for the next generation of computers and physical and chemical probes that can be employed for in situ measurements of chemical processes before starting to implement the research program described.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2019 December 18, Nigel Harris, “180 years of tragedy and progress”, in Rail, page 62",
"text": "It could not have more obvious that ATC was urgently needed - yet all the new Labour Government did was make vague promises of reviews and 'consideration'. It kicked the can down the road, as did subsequent governments.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2023 May 18, Christina Jewett, “F.D.A. Panel Recommends R.S.V. Vaccine to Protect Young Infants”, in The New York Times",
"text": "“That was a big missed opportunity and I feel it’s unfair that we kicked the can down the road to the larger public,” said Dr. El Sahly, who voted “no” to the question about whether the safety data was adequate.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To avoid or postpone a decision or action; to procrastinate."
],
"links": [
[
"avoid",
"avoid"
],
[
"postpone",
"postpone"
],
[
"procrastinate",
"procrastinate"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To avoid or postpone a decision or action; to procrastinate."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "procrastinate"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-kick the can down the road.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d7/En-au-kick_the_can_down_the_road.ogg/En-au-kick_the_can_down_the_road.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/En-au-kick_the_can_down_the_road.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "udsætte problemet"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "vitkastella"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "pelleter par en avant"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "utsette problemet"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "enrolar"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "huir hacia delante"
}
],
"word": "kick the can 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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