See back to square one on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "Probably from a metaphorical use of the children’s games snakes and ladders.",
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"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
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{
"text": "After spending six hours on the intake we realized that there was nothing wrong with it, so we are back to square one.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1952, Edward Maurice Hugh-Jones, “The American Economy, 1860-1940. by A. J. Youngson Brown”, in The Economic Journal, page 411:",
"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
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],
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"Located back at the start, as after a dead end or failure."
],
"id": "en-back_to_square_one-en-adj-egILN9W7",
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"(idiomatic) Located back at the start, as after a dead end or failure."
],
"tags": [
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"not-comparable"
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{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "terug naar af"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "de retour à la case départ"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "Alles auf Anfang"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "zurück auf Feld eins"
},
{
"code": "id",
"lang": "Indonesian",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "kembali ke awal"
},
{
"code": "id",
"lang": "Indonesian",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "balik ke awal"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "essere punto e a capo"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "na punkcie wyjścia"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "voltar à estaca zero"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "na krugi svojá",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "на круги своя́"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "u razbítovo korýta",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "у разби́того коры́та"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "tillbaka till ruta ett"
},
{
"code": "tl",
"lang": "Tagalog",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "balik sa umpisa"
}
]
}
],
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"word": "back to square one"
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"(idiomatic) Back to the start, as after a dead end or failure."
],
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{
"word": "back to the drawing board"
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"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "回到原點"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "huídào yuándiǎn",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "回到原点"
},
{
"code": "nl",
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"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "terug naar af"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "takaisin lähtöruutuun"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "de retour à la case départ"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "Gros-Jean comme devant"
},
{
"code": "id",
"lang": "Indonesian",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "kembali ke awal"
},
{
"code": "id",
"lang": "Indonesian",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "balik ke awal"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "na punkcie wyjścia"
}
]
}
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"word": "back to square one"
}
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"text": "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.",
"type": "quote"
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"Located back at the start, as after a dead end or failure."
],
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],
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],
[
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"(idiomatic) Located back at the start, as after a dead end or failure."
],
"tags": [
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"translations": [
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "terug naar af"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "de retour à la case départ"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "Alles auf Anfang"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "zurück auf Feld eins"
},
{
"code": "id",
"lang": "Indonesian",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "kembali ke awal"
},
{
"code": "id",
"lang": "Indonesian",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "balik ke awal"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "essere punto e a capo"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "na punkcie wyjścia"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "voltar à estaca zero"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "na krugi svojá",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "на круги своя́"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "u razbítovo korýta",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "у разби́того коры́та"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "tillbaka till ruta ett"
},
{
"code": "tl",
"lang": "Tagalog",
"sense": "located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "balik sa umpisa"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Oxford English Dictionary"
],
"word": "back to square one"
}
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"Pages with 1 entry",
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"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Indonesian translations",
"Terms with Italian translations",
"Terms with Mandarin translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Swedish translations",
"Terms with Tagalog translations"
],
"etymology_text": "Probably from a metaphorical use of the children’s games snakes and ladders.",
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"head": "back to square one"
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adv",
"related": [
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"word": "back to the drawing board"
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"text": "After spending six hours on the intake we realized that there was nothing wrong with it, so we went back to square one.",
"type": "example"
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],
"glosses": [
"Back to the start, as after a dead end or failure."
],
"links": [
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"start",
"start"
],
[
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"dead end"
],
[
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"failure"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) Back to the start, as after a dead end or failure."
],
"tags": [
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"audio": "en-au-back to square one.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/43/En-au-back_to_square_one.ogg/En-au-back_to_square_one.ogg.mp3",
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"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "回到原點"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "huídào yuándiǎn",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "回到原点"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "terug naar af"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "takaisin lähtöruutuun"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "de retour à la case départ"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "Gros-Jean comme devant"
},
{
"code": "id",
"lang": "Indonesian",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "kembali ke awal"
},
{
"code": "id",
"lang": "Indonesian",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "balik ke awal"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure",
"word": "na punkcie wyjścia"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
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],
"word": "back to square one"
}
Download raw JSONL data for back to square one meaning in All languages combined (7.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (65a6e81 and 0dbea76). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.