to cross that bridge when it comes
- idiom
- Informal
:
ya veremos
- There's no point in worrying—let's just cross that bridge when it comes.
Examples
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I prefer to cross that bridge when it comes rather than worry now.
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Whenever faced with uncertainty, he likes to cross that bridge when it comes.
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She prefers to cross that bridge when it comes, rather than stress now.
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Let's cross that bridge when it comes!
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There's no point in worrying—let's just cross that bridge when it comes.
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Whenever faced with uncertainty, he likes to cross that bridge when it comes.
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She prefers to cross that bridge when it comes, rather than stress now.
Synonyms
11
6.2
Decide what to do as things happen rather than plan ahead
6
5.0
Accept what happens calmly and do not worry
1
6.7
To accept what you cannot change and make the best of it
Deal with problems one at a time as they happen
Tell someone to stop worrying about a problem and move on
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
cross + that + bridge + when + it + come
The meaning 'to deal with a problem only when it happens' is directly inferable from combining 'cross' (to go over) with 'bridge' (an obstacle or passage) and 'when it comes' (upon its appearance), so the intended action is clearly to deal with the obstacle only once encountered. This concrete spatial-to-problem metaphor is common cross-linguistically, so an average B1 learner who knows the constituent words would likely understand the expression without prior exposure.
Etymology
Cross that bridge when it comes makes a simple picture: imagine walking to a river and only cross the bridge when you get there. That's why it means 'deal with a problem only when it happens'.