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Glite Dictionary
🌊 A river in Italy 🚫 A point of no return
Rubicon

Rubicon

9.8
A point of no return when a decision cannot be changed
  • noun
  • /ˈruːbɪkən/
  • Informal
translation icon : punto de no retorno
  • As yet, Israel has not crossed the rubicon of outright expulsions; it's no business of mine anyway.

Does anyone really believe this crossing this Rubicon will stop with Trump?

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Examples

  • That is a Rubicon that we have crossed.

  • Does anyone really believe this crossing this Rubicon will stop with Trump?

    Megyn Kelly

  • Does anyone really believe this crossing this Rubicon will stop with Trump?

    Megyn Kelly

  • Real Estate Query Engine is a virtual rubicon of information, putting the lawyer himself at the controls.

    Old School (2003)

  • There's no what, what, what other Rubicon do you want to cross?

  • And yes, my life has been punctuated by a couple kind of significant Rubicon changes or or reinventions to be sure.

    Chris Williamson

  • It seems like there was a real Rubicon cross when your parents went that suddenly they needed to now say you're at fault for this.

  • He said we have crossed the Rubicon here where we can threaten judges.

  • So when you're reading about Julius Caesar, you can feel what he felt like when he was on the battlefield, when he decided to cross the Rubicon and, you know, Pompeii.

  • By refusing to negotiate, she crossed the Rubicon and committed her team to a difficult path.

Synonyms

point of no return
vsRubicon
18 5.5

A moment in a process after which you cannot go back

is the same idea but stresses committing irrevocably to future events

Idioms

to cross the Rubicon
  • Informal
2 8.5

To take a decisive action that you cannot change later

How Irreversible

Rubicon
  • Informal
9.8
decision
∞ 1.0
option
∞ 2.2

Surface Forms

Rubicon singular
Rubicons plural

Etymology

Rubicon is used to mean a point of no return because when Caesar crossed that river he made a choice he could not change; that's why to 'cross the Rubicon' means to take an action that cannot be undone.