the rub

1. 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

But here’s the rub: The Ecke farming family, who grew and promoted poinsettias into a holiday staple, did their job too well.

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Here is the rub: Microsoft in its financial reports identifies OpenAI as an equity-method investment.

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That’s where the rub came for Sarmiento and other Dodgers fans.

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There’s the rub: No one knows for sure what’s coming next.

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For Warner management, that’s part of the rub.

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Related Words

• barrier 
• bug 
• crunch 
• difficulty 
• disadvantage 
• drawback 
• glitch 
• hitch 
• holdup 
• hurdle 
• impediment 
• inconvenience 
• obstacle 
• stumbling block