kick into the long grass
"kick-into-the-long-grass" is a 20-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kick into the long grass” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 24
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To postpone action on something.
Corpus desk
Index EN-kick-into-the-long-grass · kick into the long grass · English
kick into the long grass · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 24 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "K" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | kick into the long grass |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 24 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “kick into the long grass” in English
Rare enough to double-check
kick into the long grass is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for kick into the long grass in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: An analogy of kicking a football off the playing field so that it is out of play. The correct English form is kick into the long grass, spelled K-I-C-K- -I-N-T-O- -T-H-E- -L-O-N-G- -G-R-A-S-S.
Definition
- 1To postpone action on something.
- 2To hide or conceal a problem in the hope that it will be overlooked.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how kick into the long grass appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Generally, land claims had been treated on an ad hoc and haphazard basis, without any systemic absorption much less systematic response. The prevalent attitude was at best one of indifference or of inclination to kick into the long grass.
These problems have all needed resolving for years. But all involved too much risk (either for franchisees or the Government), and so they kept getting kicked into the long grass for being 'too difficult'.
Etymology
An analogy of kicking a football off the playing field so that it is out of play.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.