A sea-phrase, meaning that a rock is in the path of the ship, which the helmsman must steer clear of; a danger threatens; an opponent; an obstruction.
“That yonker … has been a rock ahead to me all my life.”—Sir W. Scott: Guy Mannering, chap. liv.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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