Variant
Meaning
- when you have to face your challenges
- efforts are put to the test
- when theory becomes a practice
- How much will it cost?
Example Sentences
- John had an excellent idea for a project, but his colleagues weren't sure what would happen where the rubber meets the road.
- His boss promised the company a raise after January 1st, but they were concerned if it would happen when the rubber meets the road.
- All the talk won't work if the idea fails when the rubber meets the road.
- You can tell me all the details but let's get down to when the rubber meets the road.
- He'd heard many things like this before he wanted to wait to see what happened where the rubber meets the road.
- She thought his plan was foolish but decided to see what happened when the rubber meets the road.
- They knew their plan to help the community was sound but didn't know if the city would support it when the rubber meets the road.
- He enjoyed the agency's pitch but didn't know if it would work where the rubber meets the road.
Origin
This idiom's origins are advertising. There are several early examples of its usage. In Will Jones's column After Last Night, he wrote about several Madison Avenuism in 1956, including where the rubber meets the road. Madison Avenue is the epicenter of advertising in the United States. In another column the same year, Erskine Johnson wrote a similar article in the Dixon Evening Telegraph, drawing attention to this idiom. In 1957, Gene Sherman, who wrote Cityside in the Los Angeles Times, and Al Osborne, who wrote Matter of Fact in the Binghamton Press, also listed this phrase as advertising slang. Later that year, Hal Boyle's national column called this idiom "businessman's bebop," adding it "originated in the ivory tower world of advertising" and "has spread throughout the industry with the speed of chickenpox in a kindergarten."
