kick the can down the road

Meaning: (informal,idiomatic)Toavoidorpostponea decision or action; toprocrastinate.Synonyms:seeThesaurus:procrastinate1983April 5, “Will MX Succeed This Time?”, inBennington Banner‎[2], Bennington, VT, page 8:Ronald Lehman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategic and theater nuclear bombs, said the United States was satisfied with its land-based deterrent for many years and "there was a tendency tokick the can down the roadand not pay enough attention to its problems.1983April 10, Jeff Nesmith, Andrew Alexander, “Will End to MX Stalemate Provide Long-Term Solution?”, inThe Post‎[3], volume l, number15, West Palm Beach, FL, pageA10:To continue haggling over points on which a consensus seems impossible, Lehman said, is to "just keepkicking the can down the road."1997December 13, F. Stephen Larrabee, Richard Sokolsky, “In a New World, NATO Must Retool Its Strategic Concept”, inThe International Herald Tribune‎[4]:[R]eaching an alliance-wide consensus on them will be difficult.[…]The natural temptation is to cling to the status quo, tinker on the edges orkick the can down the road.2013September 27, “Pakistan: kicking the can down the road”, inThe Guardian‎[5]:Fundamentalism is a product of decades of official complicity, cowardice and appeasement. Sooner or later, Mr Sharif will be forced to realise that. Until then, he is merelykicking the can down the road.2014, Aaron R. Dinner, editor,Proceedings of the 240 Conference: Science's Great Challenges, John Wiley & Sons,→ISBN,page132:[…]one might easily despair andkick the can down the roadby waiting for the next generation of computers and physical and chemical probes that can be employed forin situmeasurements of chemical processes before starting to implement the research program described.2019December 18, Nigel Harris, “180 years of tragedy and progress”, inRail, page62:It could not have more obvious thatATCwas urgently needed - yet all the new Labour Government did was make vague promises of reviews and 'consideration'. Itkicked the can down the road, as did subsequent governments.2023May 18, Christina Jewett, “F.D.A. Panel Recommends R.S.V. Vaccine to Protect Young Infants”, inThe New York Times‎[6]:“That was a big missed opportunity and I feel it’s unfair that wekicked the can down the roadto the larger public,” said Dr. El Sahly, who voted “no” to the question about whether the safety data was adequate.

Examples:

EN: A mistrial's just gonna kick the can down the road till Mike gets tried again.
ES: Con un juicio nulo estaríamos dándole largas al asunto hasta que vuelvan a enjuiciar a Mike.
EN: Let's just kick the can down the road.
ES: Tiremos la toalla por la ventana.
EN: Actually, we had to kick the can down the road on one of you guys recently.
ES: De hecho, tuvimos que aplazar a uno de ustedes hace poco.
EN: No, we agreed to kick the can down the road.
ES: No, acordamos patear la lata en el camino.
EN: - You can kick the can down the road and you can put off those external costs, which is what they're called;
ES: - Con una simple patada puedes poner fin a todos esos costes externos, como ellos los denominan.
EN: Let's just kick the can down the road and do it then.
ES: Vamos a tirar la lata al suelo el camino y hazlo entonces.
EN: I already let Bobby kick the can down the road on the pension last time, hell if I'll let him do it again.
ES: Ya dejé que Bobby aplazase la decisión de las pensiones la última vez, no se lo dejaré volver a hacer.
EN: We can't just kick the can down the road.
ES: No podemos simplemente patear la lata por el camino.
EN: We just kick the can down the road.
ES: Solo pateamos la lata por el camino.
EN: They don't care, they kick the can down the road.
HI: वो नहीं करते परवाह, जमीन पर गिर जाने की।
EN: He lies in order to kick the can down the road.
HI: उसने छत से गिरने का झूठा नाटक किया है.
EN: But in fact, it would kick the can down the road,
HI: भले चंगे को रास्ते से भटका देता है,
EN: the profit to buy a new one... and kick the can down the road
HI: एक नयी लहर बनाने को, फिर किनारे पर खो जाने को
EN: In democracies...the incentive is to kick the can down the road.
HI: बधाई हो. . . . पर चेले पंथ में विकार पैदा करते है.
EN: During his first term, he continued to kick the can down the road.
HI: इस दौरान बीच रास्ते में ही उसने दम तोड़ दिया।

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