See the rubber meets the road in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "A metaphor derived from the point of contact between automobile tires and pavement.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "phrase",
"head": "the rubber meets the road"
},
"expansion": "the rubber meets the road",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "phrase",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "51 49",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "49 51",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "48 52",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1957, Max Shulman, Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!:",
"text": "Now we're getting down to where the rubber meets the road.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2002, F. Stevens Redburn with Terry F. Buss, Public policies for distressed communities revisited, page 159:",
"text": "It can only be judged \"when the rubber meets the road\"; when its implementation does or does not produce results.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Dan Miller, 48 Days to the Work You Love, page 85:",
"text": "It is in the interview that the rubber meets the road.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A place or circumstance at which the implementation of a plan or intent is to be achieved."
],
"id": "en-the_rubber_meets_the_road-en-phrase-H9NEJiHw",
"links": [
[
"circumstance",
"circumstance"
],
[
"implementation",
"implementation"
],
[
"plan",
"plan"
],
[
"intent",
"intent"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, with \"where\" etc.) A place or circumstance at which the implementation of a plan or intent is to be achieved."
],
"raw_tags": [
"with \"where\" etc."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"tags": [
"South-Africa"
],
"word": "the tackies hit the tar"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "51 49",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "49 51",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "48 52",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1928, How to avoid automobile accidents, page 30:",
"text": "Even 500 feet probably wouldn't allow you to brake to a stop, because it's \"where the rubber meets the road\" that counts.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rubber, meet, road."
],
"id": "en-the_rubber_meets_the_road-en-phrase-NluVIskk",
"links": [
[
"rubber",
"rubber#English"
],
[
"meet",
"meet#English"
],
[
"road",
"road#English"
]
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "7 93",
"word": "the rubber hits the road"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-the rubber meets the road.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bf/En-au-the_rubber_meets_the_road.ogg/En-au-the_rubber_meets_the_road.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/En-au-the_rubber_meets_the_road.ogg"
}
],
"word": "the rubber meets the road"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English phrases",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"etymology_text": "A metaphor derived from the point of contact between automobile tires and pavement.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "phrase",
"head": "the rubber meets the road"
},
"expansion": "the rubber meets the road",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "phrase",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1957, Max Shulman, Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!:",
"text": "Now we're getting down to where the rubber meets the road.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2002, F. Stevens Redburn with Terry F. Buss, Public policies for distressed communities revisited, page 159:",
"text": "It can only be judged \"when the rubber meets the road\"; when its implementation does or does not produce results.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Dan Miller, 48 Days to the Work You Love, page 85:",
"text": "It is in the interview that the rubber meets the road.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A place or circumstance at which the implementation of a plan or intent is to be achieved."
],
"links": [
[
"circumstance",
"circumstance"
],
[
"implementation",
"implementation"
],
[
"plan",
"plan"
],
[
"intent",
"intent"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, with \"where\" etc.) A place or circumstance at which the implementation of a plan or intent is to be achieved."
],
"raw_tags": [
"with \"where\" etc."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"tags": [
"South-Africa"
],
"word": "the tackies hit the tar"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1928, How to avoid automobile accidents, page 30:",
"text": "Even 500 feet probably wouldn't allow you to brake to a stop, because it's \"where the rubber meets the road\" that counts.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rubber, meet, road."
],
"links": [
[
"rubber",
"rubber#English"
],
[
"meet",
"meet#English"
],
[
"road",
"road#English"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-the rubber meets the road.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/bf/En-au-the_rubber_meets_the_road.ogg/En-au-the_rubber_meets_the_road.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/En-au-the_rubber_meets_the_road.ogg"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "the rubber hits the road"
}
],
"word": "the rubber meets the road"
}
Download raw JSONL data for the rubber meets the road meaning in English (2.5kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-31 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (bcd5c38 and 9dbd323). 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.