moment of truth

noun
1.
the moment in a bullfight at which the matador is about to make the kill.
2.
the moment at which one's character, courage, skill, etc., is put to an extreme test; critical moment.
Origin
1930-35
Examples from the web for moment of truth
  • He had been right, in some sense, when he called it a moment of truth.
  • Now the moment of truth: the dad tries the maneuver himself.
  • The moment of truth comes when they fail to sustain prosperity.
  • The moment of truth is almost always what the military does.
  • He has to approve the pipeline in order for it to move forward, which means this will be a moment of truth for him.
  • Something had to be done to forestall the moment of truth.
  • It's almost as if he were avoiding the evening's moment of truth.
  • Here comes the moment of truth: oh, it's out, by a hair.
  • In every memoir there's a moment of truth, a sudden proving ground.
  • Somewhere in the balance of these perceptions and the customer's expectations is the moment of truth.
British Dictionary definitions for moment of truth

moment of truth

noun
1.
a moment when a person or thing is put to the test
2.
the point in a bullfight when the matador is about to kill the bull
Idioms and Phrases with moment of truth

moment of truth

A critical or decisive time, at which one is put to the ultimate test, as in Now that all the bills are in, we've come to the moment of truth—can we afford to live here or not? This expression, a translation of the Spanish el momento de la verdad, signifies the point in a bullfight when the matador makes the kill. It was first used in English in Ernest Hemingway's story Death in the Afternoon (1932).