bump in the road
bump in the road noun: a setback or obstacle, especially one which is relatively minor.
Noun
bump in the road (plural bumps in the road)
- A setback or obstacle, especially one which is relatively minor.
- "The stock market has gone down, but it's just a bump in the road," she says.1998 October 18, “We Need A Little Christmas Now”, in Businessweek, retrieved 21 Jul 2014
- Ms. Leopold . . . said today that she saw the attack, for which she received more than 50 stitches, as more of a bump in the road than a serious deterrence to her goal.2003 January 13, Eric Goldscheider, “Victim Looks for Meaning In Random Subway Slashing”, in New York Times, retrieved 21 Jul 2014
- Synonyms:
- hindrance
- A very small town.
- "We're such a small bump in the road that driving through Sylvester is like hitting an armadillo at 60 miles an hour," drawls local businessman David Register.1995 June 25, “Wired In The Woods”, in Newsweek, retrieved 21 Jul 2014
- "Believe it or not, that ugly little town was the county seat originally, when Pickax was only a bump in the road."1996, Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Blew the Whistle, →ISBN, page 28
- Synonyms:
- backwater, one-horse town, remote place
Examples of bump in the road in a sentence
- If there is a potential bump in the road for the NBA in the UK, it is its lack of a television deal.2012 December 4, David Lengel, “NBA commissioner David Stern talks Christmas uniforms, YouTube and TV”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 21...
- Now, the one-stop-sign bump in the road is officially marked along Georgia's long and lonesome Highway 16.1998 December 6, Marilyn Thompson, “South of Atlanta, 'Fried' and True”, in Washington Post, retrieved 21 Jul 2014:
- The scheme, which began in 1994, proved a bonanza for Mattoon, no more than a bump in the road halfway between St Louis and Indianapolis.2000 September 6, Andrew Gumbel, “Fortune was not manna from heaven, just money from mugs”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 21 Jul 2014:
Synonyms of bump in the road
- hindrance
- backwater
- one-horse town
- remote place
Forms of bump in the road
| plural | bumps in the road |
|---|---|
| alternative form | bump on the road |
Questions about bump in the road
- What does bump in the road mean?
- Bump in the road means a setback or obstacle, especially one which is relatively minor.
- How do you use bump in the road in a sentence?
- If there is a potential bump in the road for the NBA in the UK, it is its lack of a television deal.
- What part of speech is bump in the road?
- Bump in the road is a noun.
- What is the plural of bump in the road?
- The plural of bump in the road is bumps in the road.
Words near bump in the road in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bump in the road (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-bump in the road.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bump in the road.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bump_in_the_road. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.