Meaning
To take a step from which there is no turning back - resigning, publishing, proposing, declaring - so that everything after it follows from the choice. The phrase stresses deliberateness: the Rubicon is crossed knowingly, with the consequences accepted in advance. Almost always of decisions taken deliberately under pressure; journalism uses it for resignations, launches, and declarations that end debate. Regional use: General English (classical allusion).
Origin
From Julius Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon, a shallow stream that marked the boundary between his province of Cisalpine Gaul and Italy proper. On 10 January 49 BC he led the Thirteenth Legion across it, deliberately breaking the law that stripped him of command inside Italy and making civil war inevitable; Suetonius records his remark on the far bank as 'iacta alea est' - the die is cast - while Plutarch has him quoting a line of the playwright Menander in Greek. The river's name probably reflects its muddy colour, from Latin rubicundus, 'ruddy'. English made the crossing proverbial early: Etymonline dates the figurative phrase 'cross (or pass) the Rubicon', meaning to take a decisive and irreversible step, to the 1620s.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a Rubicon moment
- crossing the Rubicon
- pass the Rubicon (early form)
Usage Examples
- By signing the letter of intent she crossed the Rubicon; the deposit was paid and the house was hers to lose.
- The band crossed the Rubicon when they fired their manager of fifteen years on the eve of the tour.
- Once you resign from the board you have crossed the Rubicon - there is no invitation back after that.