cross the Rubicon
English
Etymology
Refers to Julius Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon River to wage civil war with Rome, on January 10, 49 BC, in violation of law. Suetonius' use of the phrase the die is cast in describing this act popularised the use of that phrase, which was first attributed to the Greek dramatist Menander.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
cross the Rubicon (third-person singular simple present crosses the Rubicon, present participle crossing the Rubicon, simple past and past participle crossed the Rubicon)
- (idiomatic) To make an irreversible decision or to take an action with consequences.
- He knew that by coming out to his family he would be crossing the Rubicon, but he could not live a lie anymore.
- 2019 August 16, Girard, Bonnie, “Battle-Ready: The PLA’s Hong Kong Garrison”, in The Diplomat, archived from the original on 16 August 2019:
- Will China cross the Rubicon by sending its military to Hong Kong?[...]
As the world contemplates whether Beijing will cross the Rubicon and use military force to quell protests in Hong Kong, one question naturally comes to mind: Would the existing garrison be used, or would tanks and soldiers, recently seen moving toward the border in nearby Shenzhen, come across from the mainland? Would they conceivably act as a combined force?
- 2022 October 21, Jason Bailey, “How George Clooney and Julia Roberts Quietly Became the Tracy-Hepburn of Our Time”, in The New York Times:
- When the inevitable moment arrives to cross the romantic Rubicon in “Ticket to Paradise,” the machinery of the screenplay and the far-fetched nature of the moment don’t matter — they can just look at each other and sell it.
Derived terms
- rubicon
Translations
to make an irreversible decision
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See also
- burn one's boats
- burn one's bridges
- point of no return
- the die is cast
- unmask one's batteries