"therein lies the rub" meaning in English

See therein lies the rub in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Etymology: Misquotation or paraphrasing from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "ay, there's the rub". Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} therein lies the rub
  1. That is where the problem is. Synonyms: there lies the rub, there is the rub Related terms: thereby hangs a tale, where the shoe pinches Translations (that is where the problem is): daar wringt de schoen (Dutch), daar wringt het schoentje (Dutch), siinä ongelma juuri piileekin (Finnish), c’est là que le bât blesse (French), da liegt der Hase im Pfeffer (German), da liegt der Hund begraben (German), τα κουμπιά της Αλέξαινας (ta koumpiá tis Aléxainas) (Greek), itt a bökkenő/gond (english: van) (Hungarian), itt van a kutya elásva (Hungarian), qui casca l'asino (Italian), der ligger hunden begravet (Norwegian Bokmål), tu leży pies pogrzebany (Polish), tu jest pies pogrzebany (Polish), вот где соба́ка зары́та (vot gde sobáka zarýta) (Russian), la madre del cordero (Spanish), här ligger en hund begraven (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-therein_lies_the_rub-en-phrase-2eWVQLzJ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for therein lies the rub meaning in English (2.8kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Misquotation or paraphrasing from Shakespeare's Hamlet: \"ay, there's the rub\".",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "therein lies the rub",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I tried to back up my database to a USB flash drive, but it isn't big enough. Therein lies the rub.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "That is where the problem is."
      ],
      "id": "en-therein_lies_the_rub-en-phrase-2eWVQLzJ",
      "links": [
        [
          "problem",
          "problem"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "thereby hangs a tale"
        },
        {
          "word": "where the shoe pinches"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "there lies the rub"
        },
        {
          "word": "there is the rub"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "daar wringt de schoen"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "daar wringt het schoentje"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "siinä ongelma juuri piileekin"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "c’est là que le bât blesse"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "da liegt der Hase im Pfeffer"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "da liegt der Hund begraben"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "ta koumpiá tis Aléxainas",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "τα κουμπιά της Αλέξαινας"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "english": "van",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "itt a bökkenő/gond"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "itt van a kutya elásva"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "qui casca l'asino"
        },
        {
          "code": "nb",
          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "der ligger hunden begravet"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "tu leży pies pogrzebany"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "tu jest pies pogrzebany"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "vot gde sobáka zarýta",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "вот где соба́ка зары́та"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "la madre del cordero"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "that is where the problem is",
          "word": "här ligger en hund begraven"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "therein lies the rub"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Misquotation or paraphrasing from Shakespeare's Hamlet: \"ay, there's the rub\".",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "therein lies the rub",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "thereby hangs a tale"
    },
    {
      "word": "where the shoe pinches"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I tried to back up my database to a USB flash drive, but it isn't big enough. Therein lies the rub.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "That is where the problem is."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "problem",
          "problem"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "there lies the rub"
    },
    {
      "word": "there is the rub"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "daar wringt de schoen"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "daar wringt het schoentje"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "siinä ongelma juuri piileekin"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "c’est là que le bât blesse"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "da liegt der Hase im Pfeffer"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "da liegt der Hund begraben"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "ta koumpiá tis Aléxainas",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "τα κουμπιά της Αλέξαινας"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "english": "van",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "itt a bökkenő/gond"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "itt van a kutya elásva"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "qui casca l'asino"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "der ligger hunden begravet"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "tu leży pies pogrzebany"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "tu jest pies pogrzebany"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "vot gde sobáka zarýta",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "вот где соба́ка зары́та"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "la madre del cordero"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "that is where the problem is",
      "word": "här ligger en hund begraven"
    }
  ],
  "word": "therein lies the rub"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c 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.

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.