the rub

noun

formal

: something that causes a difficulty or problem

She's an amazing cook, but she rarely has time to make meals. There's the rub.

Therein/There lies the rub.

Examples of the rub in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The widespread interest in gen AI has created a massive wave of use cases and experiments—and there’s the rub. —

Byrodney Zemmel, Fortune, 15 May 2024 Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the rub inside the body cavity and 1/2 teaspoon inside the neck cavity of the chicken. —

Kate Bradshaw, The Mercury News, 13 May 2024 And that’s the rub: Long waits and staff stretched thin are the natural by-products of overexpansion. —

Maria Aspan, Fortune, 2 May 2024 Here’s the rub: To date, Nothing has released nothing but earbuds and cell phones—none of which have changed the market dramatically. —

Parker Hall, WIRED, 5 Apr. 2024 Here’s the rub—and there’s often a rub with a release like this. —

Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 17 Mar. 2024 But here’s the rub: This was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and all 17,500 seats around the Hollywood Bowl were empty. —

Michael Schneider, Variety, 7 Mar. 2024 But here’s the rub: the barbeque is a wedding reception for his mother and his uncle. —

David Catlin, The Enquirer, 6 Mar. 2024 But here’s the rub: two years into a steep rebuild caused by mortgaging large chunks of the future — moves that led to the Super Bowl victory — McVay’s program has surprised many football experts by ranking in the NFL’s top half in scoring on both offense and defense. —

Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Dec. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'the rub.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.