English

Alternative forms

• bump on the road

Noun

bump in the road ‎(plural bumps in the road)

1. (idiomatic) A setback or obstacle, especially one which is relatively minor.
   • 1998 Oct. 18, "We Need A Little Christmas Now," Businessweek (retrieved 21 July 2014):

     "The stock market has gone down, but it's just a bump in the road," she says.

   • 2003 Jan. 13, Eric Goldscheider, "Victim Looks for Meaning In Random Subway Slashing," New York Times (retrieved 21 July 2014):

     Ms. Leopold . . . said today that she saw the attack, for which she received more than 50 stitches, as more of a bump in the road than a serious deterrence to her goal.

   • 2012 Dec. 4, David Lengel, "NBA commissioner David Stern talks Christmas uniforms, YouTube and TV," The Guardian (UK) (retrieved 21 July 2014):

     If there is a potential bump in the road for the NBA in the UK, it is its lack of a television deal.

2. (idiomatic) A very small town.
   • 1995, June 25, "Wired In The Woods," Newsweek (retrieved 21 July 2014):

     "We're such a small bump in the road that driving through Sylvester is like hitting an armadillo at 60 miles an hour," drawls local businessman David Register.

   • 1996, Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Blew the Whistle, ISBN 9781101214251, p. 28 (Google preview):

     "Believe it or not, that ugly little town was the county seat originally, when Pickax was only a bump in the road."

   • 1998 Dec. 6, Marilyn Thompson, "South of Atlanta, 'Fried' and True," Washington Post (retrieved 21 July 2014):

     The town of Juliette, Ga., wasn't even on the map until after 1991. . . . Now, the one-stop-sign bump in the road is officially marked along Georgia's long and lonesome Highway 16.

   • 2000 Sept. 6, Andrew Gumbel, "Fortune was not manna from heaven, just money from mugs," The Independent (UK) (retrieved 21 July 2014):

     The Lord has been a good provider in the small farming town of Mattoon, Illinois. . . . The scheme, which began in 1994, proved a bonanza for Mattoon, no more than a bump in the road halfway between St Louis and Indianapolis.

Synonyms

• (setback or obstacle): See Wikisaurus:hindrance
• (very small town): backwater, one-horse town, See Wikisaurus:remote place