Idiom
therein lies the rub
Meaning
That is where the problem is found or located.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“I want to travel, but therein lies the rub: I have no money.”
“We need to finish the project by tomorrow, but therein lies the rub: the software is not working yet.”
“The committee proposed a radical solution to improve efficiency, yet therein lies the rub, as the plan requires a budget that the company simply cannot afford.”
Examples
simple
“I want to travel, but therein lies the rub: I have no money.”
contextual
“We need to finish the project by tomorrow, but therein lies the rub: the software is not working yet.”
complex
“The committee proposed a radical solution to improve efficiency, yet therein lies the rub, as the plan requires a budget that the company simply cannot afford.”
Origin
A misquotation or paraphrasing from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "ay, there's the rub".
Key words
Related idioms
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