the rubber meets the road
the rubber meets the road phrase: a place or circumstance at which the implementation of a plan or intent is to be achieved.
Phrase
the rubber meets the road
- A place or circumstance at which the implementation of a plan or intent is to be achieved.
- Now we're getting down to where the rubber meets the road.1957, Max Shulman, Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!
- It can only be judged "when the rubber meets the road"; when its implementation does or does not produce results.2002, F. Stevens Redburn with Terry F. Buss, Public policies for distressed communities revisited, page 159
- Synonyms:
- the tackies hit the tar
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rubber, meet, road.
- Even 500 feet probably wouldn't allow you to brake to a stop, because it's "where the rubber meets the road" that counts.1928, How to avoid automobile accidents, page 30
Synonyms of the rubber meets the road
Forms of the rubber meets the road
| alternative form | the rubber hits the road |
|---|
Origin of the rubber meets the road
A metaphor derived from the point of contact between automobile tires and pavement.
Questions about the rubber meets the road
- What does the rubber meets the road mean?
- The rubber meets the road means a place or circumstance at which the implementation of a plan or intent is to be achieved.
- What part of speech is the rubber meets the road?
- The rubber meets the road is a phrase.
Words near the rubber meets the road in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: the rubber meets 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-the rubber meets the road.ogg.
Cite this entry: “the rubber meets the road.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/the_rubber_meets_the_road. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.