kick into the long grass

kick into the long grass verb: to postpone action on something.

Verb

kick into the long grass (third-person singular simple present kicks into the long grass, present participle kicking into the long grass, simple past and past participle kicked into the long grass)

(idiomatic, transitive) To postpone action on something.
- Generally, land claims had been treated on an ad hoc and haphazard basis, without any systemic absorption much less systematic response. The prevalent attitude was at best one of indifference or of inclination to kick into the long grass.2011, P. G. McHugh, Aboriginal Title: The Modern Jurisprudence of Tribal Land Rights
- These problems have all needed resolving for years. But all involved too much risk (either for franchisees or the Government), and so they kept getting kicked into the long grass for being 'too difficult'.2020 May 6, Stefanie Foster, “Comment: One chance for a new order”, in Rail, page 3
Synonyms:

hit into the long grass, push into the long grass, punt into the long grass, go into the long grass, kick the can down the road
(idiomatic, transitive) To hide or conceal a problem in the hope that it will be overlooked.
- Given the growth in participation opportunities for women and girls of all ages and the demise of what could truly be said to be 'male-only' sports, s.44 had been kicked into the long grass long before it, like the rest of the 1975 Act, was also repealed by the 2010 legislation.2016, Stefan Horlacher, Transgender and Intersex, page 77
- There have been signs, post-Brexit, of a concerted effort by government ministers to downplay — not to say kick into the long grass — earlier Tory promises to reduce net migration numbers to 'tens of thousands'.2017, Sarah Winterton, The Wintertons Unmuzzled
Synonyms:

sweep under the rug

Noun

kick into the long grass (plural kicks into the long grass)

(idiomatic, informal) An instance of kicking into the long grass.
- Never can a kick into the long grass have been more clearly signalled.2010, Guy Lodge, Katie Schmuecker, Devolution in Practice, page 262
- But I could find nothing in the parliamentary record of the committee reporting back to the House and assume that, as now, referral to committee meant a kick into the long grass.2011, Andrew Murrison, Tommy This an' Tommy That: The military covenant, page 142

Synonyms of kick into the long grass

Forms of kick into the long grass

Verb
third-person singular present	kicks into the long grass
present participle	kicking into the long grass
past participle	kicked into the long grass
past	kicked into the long grass
Noun
plural	kicks into the long grass

Origin of kick into the long grass

An analogy of kicking a football off the playing field so that it is out of play.

Questions about kick into the long grass

What does kick into the long grass mean?: Kick into the long grass means to postpone action on something.
What part of speech is kick into the long grass?: Kick into the long grass can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of kick into the long grass?: The past tense of kick into the long grass is kicked into the long grass.

Words near kick into the long grass in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: kick into the long grass (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: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “kick into the long grass.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kick_into_the_long_grass. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.