kick into touch

English

Alternative forms

• kick to touch

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

kick into touch (third-person singular simple present kicks into touch, present participle kicking into touch, simple past and past participle kicked into touch)

1. (UK, sports) To kick a ball over the touchline in a game of rugby, often to avoid pressure from the opponent team in a difficult situation, to end injury time or to gain territory.
2. (UK, Ireland, idiomatic) To evade an issue; to stop from happening.

   It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I'm going to kick it into touch.

   • 2012 October 29, Barney Ronay, “Is the Premier League becoming racist again?”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     With referee Mark Clattenburg at the centre of a new racism row, is football once more succumbing to a blight many thought had been kicked into touch?

Translations

rugby

• Finnish: potkaista sivurajan yli
• French: botter en touche (fr)

evade an issue

• Finnish: sysätä syrjään
• French: botter en touche (fr), noyer le poisson (fr)

Further reading

• Eric Partridge (2005) “kick into touch”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volume 2 (J–Z), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1148.