Also used: If Push Comes To Shove
Meaning of Idiom ‘When Push Comes To Shove’
When push comes to shove means when all the easy solutions haven’t worked and something must be done about a problem; when things become so bad that you are forced to make a decision, do something difficult, or solve a problem; the crucial point when a problem or situation must be confronted; the time when a final solution must be found or implemented, after all other solutions have failed;
Sometimes, in the case of when push comes to shove, the idiom describes what someone does in the end despite what they have said or promised.
If push comes to shove has a similar meaning to ‘if worst comes to worst.’
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Examples Of Use
“My friends are always telling me they will be there for me but when push comes to shove, I’m on my own.”
“I’ll come up with the payment somehow. If push comes to shove, I can sell my old Mustang.”
“Students have enough expense without having to buy an expensive new laptop for college. However, when push comes to shove you can probably make do with a used laptop.”
“We’ve tried to keep doing business during the pandemic but when push comes to shove we may have to shut down entirely.”
Origin
Used since at least the 1940s, this idiom reportedly comes from the game of rugby in general, or from the rugby scrum, a way of resuming play after a minor rules infringement. Each team’s eight forward face each other and interlock. A ball is fed into the gap and the two opposing groups grapple for control of the ball, thus pushing and shoving one another.
More Idioms Starting with W
- Waste One’s Breath
- Wash Your Hands of (Someone or Something)
- What’s the Damage?
- Work One’s Fingers To the Bone
- Out of Wedlock
More Come Idioms
More Push Idioms
More When Idioms
- When the Cat’s Away, the Mice Will Play
- When the Going Gets Tough (The Tough Get Going)
- When it Comes to Something
- When the Chips are Down