back to square one

English

Etymology

Probably from a metaphorical use of the children’s games snakes and ladders.[1][2]

Pronunciation
  • Audio (AU)(file)

Adjective

back to square one (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Located back at the start, as after a dead end or failure.
    After spending six hours on the intake we realized that there was nothing wrong with it, so we are back to square one.
    • 1952, Edward Maurice Hugh-Jones, “The American Economy, 1860-1940. by A. J. Youngson Brown”, in The Economic Journal, page 411:
      Withal he has the problem of maintaining the interest of the reader who is always being sent back to square one in a sort of intellectual game of snakes and ladders.

Translations

Adverb

back to square one (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic) Back to the start, as after a dead end or failure.
    After spending six hours on the intake we realized that there was nothing wrong with it, so we went back to square one.

Translations

See also

References
  1. “Extract revised for OED Online: square one”, in Oxford English Dictionary‎, 2006 January, archived from the original on 16 March 2006.
  2. Gary Martin (1997–) “Back to square one”, in The Phrase Finder, retrieved 26 February 2017.

Further reading
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