back to square one
back to square one
Back to the very first stage of something; returned to an initial starting point. We'll have to go back to square one if the government pulls our funding on this project. Yet another relationship down the tubes. I guess I'm back to square one yet again!
See also: back, one, square
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
back to square one
Fig. back to the beginning. (As with a board game.) Negotiations have broken down, and it's back to square one. We lost our appeal of the lower court decision, so back to square one.
See also: back, one, square
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
back to square one
orback at square one
COMMON If someone is back to square one or back at square one, they have failed completely in what they were trying to do, and now have to start again. The treatment failed and I was back to square one. But now, after their appeal, the investigation is back at square one. Note: You can also say that you start or start something from square one. The new board will apparently be starting from square one. Note: This expression may refer to board games where the players move counters along a series of squares, and sometimes have to start again at the beginning.
See also: back, one, square
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
back to square one
back to the starting point, with no progress made.Square one may be a reference to a board game such as Snakes and Ladders, or may come from the notional division of a football pitch into eight numbered sections for the purpose of early radio commentaries.
See also: back, one, square
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
back to square one
phr. back to the beginning. (Often with go.) We’ve got to get this done without going back to square one.
See also: back, one, square
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
back to square one
Indication to start again from the beginning, because one has failed or has reached a dead end. The term probably came from a board game such as snakes and ladders or from a street game such as hopscotch, where an unlucky throw of dice or a marker forces the player to begin the course all over again. It was adopted by British sportscasters in the 1930s, when the printed radio program would include a numbered grid of a soccer (football) field to help listeners follow the game broadcasts. The same sense is conveyed by back to the drawing board, a term originating during World War II, almost certainly from the caption of a cartoon by Peter Arno in the New Yorker magazine, which showed a man holding a set of blueprints and watching an airplane on the ground blow up. A similar phrase with a slightly different sense is back to basics—that is, let’s go back to the beginning, or return to the fundamentals of a subject, problem, or other issue. The term dates from the mid-twentieth century and probably originated in either school or laboratory, where a subject was not clearly understood or an experiment of some kind failed.
See also: back, one, square
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- be/go back to square one
- back
- back at (something or some place)
- echo back to
- break one's neck, to
- come back and see us
- be back on the rails
- a while back
- (in) back of (something)
- back of something