There’s the rub

William Shakespeare's idiom there's the rub.

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Idiom: There’s the rub

In the post sign on the dotted line, I debuted the idiom ‘There’s the rub.’

Many expressions and words were first made famous by Shakespeare in his plays, and many people like to quote him, even today.


There’s the rub means there’s the difficulty. The rub is a somewhat outdated way to refer to a difficulty or challenge.


We have all heard of William Shakespeare.

Many people call him by his nickname ‘The Bard.’

Anyways, Shakespeare has had a tremendous effect on the English language.

He had such an effect that many of the idioms he used are still around today.

There are still many words used in daily English that he invented.

One of his idioms is, well, there’s the rub, which means that’s the difficulty.

It is essential to understand that using the expression in daily conversation is outdated.

But if you want to quote Shakespeare or are talking with someone familiar with Shakespeare’s works, feel free to quote Shakespeare.


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).  

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 69.  

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100. 



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