Meaning in Plain English
To kick the can down the road is to postpone dealing with a difficult problem instead of solving it. The delay may make the immediate situation easier, but the original problem remains for the same person—or someone else—to face later.
The phrase often carries criticism. It suggests more than taking reasonable time to gather facts: the speaker thinks a decision is being deferred because it is costly, unpopular, or uncomfortable.
How to Use the Idiom
The usual construction is kick the can down the road. It works in personal, business, and political contexts:
Another temporary repair would only kick the can down the road.
The board postponed the funding decision, kicking the can down the road until autumn.
We can extend the deadline, but that may just kick the can down the road.
The object represented by the can is normally understood from context. A writer can name it—They kicked the pension problem down the road
—but the fixed form with the can is more familiar.
Not every delay deserves the phrase. Waiting for a safety report or allowing time for consultation can be responsible. Kicking the can down the road is most apt when the delay substitutes for a real plan or transfers the consequences to the future.
Why the Metaphor Works
The expression asks us to picture a person walking along and idly kicking a discarded can ahead. The can remains in the path; only its location changes. That makes the image a compact description of temporary fixes, repeated extensions, and decisions passed from one administration or manager to the next.
British English has a related expression, kick something into the long grass. Both idioms describe avoidance, though their images are different: one keeps moving the problem forward, while the other puts it out of sight.
What the Printed Record Shows
The familiar figurative expression is relatively recent. Pascal Tréguer’s survey of early examples records an isolated 1969 use of kick the can down the street and clear public-policy uses in 1983. A separate Grammarphobia database search likewise places the now-common cliché in the 1980s.
That evidence supports a cautious conclusion: the wording may have had scattered precursors, but it became established as a metaphor for postponing policy problems late in the twentieth century. It is especially common in discussion of budgets, debt, infrastructure, and reforms whose costs can be shifted into a later year.
Does It Come from the Children’s Game?
The children’s game kick the can is older in print than the full idiom, but similarity of wording does not prove that the game produced the metaphor. In the game, kicking the can is a purposeful act that can free captured players. In the modern idiom, kicking is aimless and merely moves an unresolved object farther away.
For that reason, both Merriam-Webster’s discussion and the historical surveys above treat the idle roadside image as a better fit while avoiding a claim that one identifiable person coined the expression.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is kicking the can down the road the same as procrastinating?
They overlap, but the idiom usually concerns a particular unresolved problem and often implies consequences for other people. Procrastinate can describe any delayed task.
Can the phrase describe a temporary solution?
Yes. A temporary measure may be called can-kicking when it buys time without addressing the cause. If the interim step is part of a credible longer plan, the criticism may be unfair.
Is “kick the can” enough?
Sometimes context makes the shorter form clear, but kick the can down the road is the standard expression for postponement. Kick the can can also refer to the children’s game.
Sources and Further Reading
- Merriam-Webster — meaning, history, and discussion of the metaphor.
- Word Histories — dated early examples and evidence about the phrase’s development.
- The Idioms — definition and common usage examples.
- Grammarphobia — the idiom’s relationship to the older game.
- A Word or 2 — examples of the phrase in political and media contexts.
