the rub

Idioms

The difficulty or problem, as in We'd love to come but there's the rub—we can't get reservations. This expression may come from lawn bowling, where rub refers to an unevenness in the ground that impedes the ball. Its most famous use is in one of Hamlet's soliloquies (Hamlet, 3:1): “To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come ... Must give us pause.” [Late 1500s]

Example Sentences

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the rub

The beef industry is starting to feel the rub of government workforce reductions.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026

For Slot, who has regularly insisted that Liverpool have been unfortunate on many an occasion this season, there was an acceptable that his side had finally got the rub of the green.

From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2026

The answer is yes, but there’s the rub.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026

Public-market investors had visibility into the 2000 bubble, but much less today—and there’s the rub.

From Barron's ● Dec. 12, 2025

It stung her, the rub of Shan’s dismissal, and then it became a prickly resentment directed at Blaine, because she wished he would not agree so heartily with his sister.

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

the rub

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