kick the can down the road
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: kicks the can down the road
form: kicking the can down the road
form: kicked the can down the road
form: kicked the can down the road
Etymology: Attested as an activity of idle urban youths since the late 19th century. The modern sense of procrastinate dates from the 1980s.
Senses: examples: 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.
ref: 1983 April 5, “Will MX Succeed This Time?”, in Bennington Banner, Bennington, VT, page 8:
text: To continue haggling over points on which a consensus seems impossible, Lehman said, is to "just keep kicking the can down the road."
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: [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.
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: 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.
ref: 2013 September 27, “Pakistan: kicking the can down the road”, in The Guardian:
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.
ref: 2014, Aaron R. Dinner, editor, Proceedings of the 240 Conference: Science's Great Challenges, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 132:
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.
ref: 2019 December 18, Nigel Harris, “180 years of tragedy and progress”, in Rail, page 62:
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.
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: Normally, a seven-week continuing resolution would be standard practice for Congress, which excels at kicking the can down the road and often makes hard, longer-term decisions only when threatened with missing its vacation time – which is why it set the new pre-Thanksgiving deadline.
ref: 2025 September 20, Cameron Joseph, “Why a government shutdown looms as Congress splits town”, in The Christian Science Monitor:
synonyms: word: adjourn
word: avert
word: defer
word: delay
word: dilly-dally
word: draw out
word: extend
word: forslow
word: forestall
word: forestay
word: kick into the long grass
word: kick the can down the road
word: postpone
word: procrastinate
word: prolong
word: prorogue
word: prorogate
word: protract
word: put off
word: put on hold
word: put on ice
word: retard
word: stay
word: suspend
word: tarry
glosses: To avoid or postpone a decision or action; to procrastinate.
Related terms: can-kicking
carry the can
kick at the can
kick into the long grass