back to square one
adjEtymology
Probably from a metaphorical use of the children’s games snakes and ladders.
Definitions
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.
- 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.
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.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for back to square one. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA