when/if push comes to shove, when or if matters are ultimately confronted or resolved; when or if a problem must be faced; in a crucial situation: If push comes to shove, the government will impose quotas on imports.
Origin: 1250–1300; Middle English pushen, poshen, posson (v.) < Middle French pousser,Old French po(u)lser < Latin pulsāre.See pulsate
c.1300, from O.Fr. poulser, from L. pulsare "to beat, strike, push," frequentative of pellere (pp. pulsus) "to push, drive, beat" (see pulse (1)). The noun is first recorded 1570. Meaning "approach a certain age" is from 1937. Meaning "promote" (1714) led to pusher "peddler
of illegal drugs," first recorded 1935 in prison slang (earlier it meant "prostitute," 1923). Pushy "forward, aggressive" first recorded 1936. To push (someone) around is from 1923. Phrase push comes to shove is from 1958; to push (one's) luck is from 1911. To push the envelope in figurative sense is late 1980s. Push-up, the exercise, is from 1906; to push up daisies "be dead and buried" is from c.1860. Push-button (n.) is from 1898; adj. sense "characterized by the use of push-buttons" is from 1946.
tv. to approach a particular age (in years). : He's only pushing thirty, but he looks much older.
in. to recruit new drug users and sell drugs to them; to deal in drugs. : He was pushing for two years before the cops got him.
tv. to hypesomething or someone; to pressure something or someone. : The clerk was pushing one brand so hard that I finally bought it.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition. Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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