See paint oneself into a corner in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From the idea that a person painting the floor of a room may inadvertently apply the paint over the whole floor and trap themselves in a corner away from any exit, so that to leave the room the person has no choice but to step on the fresh paint and ruin it.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "paints oneself into a corner",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "painting oneself into a corner",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "painted oneself into a corner",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "painted oneself into a corner",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
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"args": {
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},
"expansion": "paint oneself into a corner (third-person singular simple present paints oneself into a corner, present participle painting oneself into a corner, simple past and past participle painted oneself into a corner)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"paint"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
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{
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"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "2001, Carolyn R. Russell, “Introduction”, in The Films of Joel and Ethan Coen, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, pages 3–4:",
"text": "The Coens [Coen brothers] write their screenplays in a manner as unorthodox as the films that result from them. […] They paint themselves into a corner, plotwise, then perform whatever literary gymnastics are necessary in order to paint themselves out.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Risa B. Sodi, “Giuliana Tedeschi: Wife, Mother, Survivor”, in Narrative & Imperative: The First Fifty Years of Italian Holocaust Writing (1944–1994), New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang Publishing, →ISBN, page 141:",
"text": "[Giuliana] Tedeschi thus rejects the mythicization of the Holocaust, in her book and in others'. By claiming a separate, privileged space for documentary writing and survivor nonfiction, she in effect paints herself into a corner, forced thereafter to deny the presence—even the abundance—of literary tropes and writerly devices in her own work.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009, Vivian Liska, “Introduction: Uncommon Communities”, in When Kafka Says We: Uncommon Communities in German-Jewish Literature, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN:",
"text": "In his diary entry from 8 January 1914, Franz Kafka writes: \"What have I in common with Jews? I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe\" […] [T]his corner could also, tragically, describe the place where Kafka feels he should position himself, painting himself into a corner, into a dead end, where nothing but bare life stripped of all existential substance and support can subsist.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Hillel Glazer, “The Man versus the Money”, in High Performance Operations: Leverage Compliance to Lower Costs, Increase Profits, and Gain Competitive Advantage, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: FT Press, →ISBN, pages 57–58:",
"text": "Executives and businesses are often painted into a corner. They unwittingly lock themselves and their companies into a rigid bureaucratic way of dealing with rules, regulations, and compliance matters.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To create a predicament or problem for oneself; to do something that leaves one with no good alternatives or solutions."
],
"id": "en-paint_oneself_into_a_corner-en-verb-ivI773mZ",
"links": [
[
"predicament",
"predicament"
],
[
"problem",
"problem"
],
[
"leaves",
"leave#Verb"
],
[
"good",
"good#Adjective"
],
[
"alternative",
"alternative"
],
[
"solution",
"solution"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To create a predicament or problem for oneself; to do something that leaves one with no good alternatives or solutions."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "back oneself into a corner"
},
{
"word": "box oneself into a corner"
},
{
"word": "get oneself into a corner"
},
{
"word": "talk oneself into a corner"
},
{
"word": "write oneself into a corner"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "male sig selv op i et hjørne"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "jezelf in de hoek schilderen"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "maalata itsensä nurkkaan"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"tags": [
"Quebec"
],
"word": "se peinturer dans un coin"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "essere con le spalle al muro"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "male seg inn i et hjørne"
},
{
"code": "nn",
"lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "måle seg inn i eit hjørne"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"tags": [
"colloquial"
],
"word": "meterse en un berenjenal"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"tags": [
"colloquial"
],
"word": "meterse en un jardín"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "meterse en la boca del lobo"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈpeɪnt wʌnsɛlf ɪntʊ ə ˈkɔɹnɚ/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈpeɪnt wʌnsɛlf ɪntʊ ə ˈkɔːnə(ɹ)/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈpeɪnt wʌnsɛlf ɪntu ə ˈkɔɹnɚ/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-au-paint oneself into a corner.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/ce/En-au-paint_oneself_into_a_corner.ogg/En-au-paint_oneself_into_a_corner.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/En-au-paint_oneself_into_a_corner.ogg"
}
],
"word": "paint oneself into a corner"
}
{
"etymology_text": "From the idea that a person painting the floor of a room may inadvertently apply the paint over the whole floor and trap themselves in a corner away from any exit, so that to leave the room the person has no choice but to step on the fresh paint and ruin it.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "paints oneself into a corner",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "painting oneself into a corner",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "painted oneself into a corner",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
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},
{
"form": "painted oneself into a corner",
"tags": [
"past"
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"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"paint"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
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"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
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"Terms with Norwegian Nynorsk translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations"
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "2001, Carolyn R. Russell, “Introduction”, in The Films of Joel and Ethan Coen, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, pages 3–4:",
"text": "The Coens [Coen brothers] write their screenplays in a manner as unorthodox as the films that result from them. […] They paint themselves into a corner, plotwise, then perform whatever literary gymnastics are necessary in order to paint themselves out.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2007, Risa B. Sodi, “Giuliana Tedeschi: Wife, Mother, Survivor”, in Narrative & Imperative: The First Fifty Years of Italian Holocaust Writing (1944–1994), New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang Publishing, →ISBN, page 141:",
"text": "[Giuliana] Tedeschi thus rejects the mythicization of the Holocaust, in her book and in others'. By claiming a separate, privileged space for documentary writing and survivor nonfiction, she in effect paints herself into a corner, forced thereafter to deny the presence—even the abundance—of literary tropes and writerly devices in her own work.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2009, Vivian Liska, “Introduction: Uncommon Communities”, in When Kafka Says We: Uncommon Communities in German-Jewish Literature, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN:",
"text": "In his diary entry from 8 January 1914, Franz Kafka writes: \"What have I in common with Jews? I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe\" […] [T]his corner could also, tragically, describe the place where Kafka feels he should position himself, painting himself into a corner, into a dead end, where nothing but bare life stripped of all existential substance and support can subsist.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2011, Hillel Glazer, “The Man versus the Money”, in High Performance Operations: Leverage Compliance to Lower Costs, Increase Profits, and Gain Competitive Advantage, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: FT Press, →ISBN, pages 57–58:",
"text": "Executives and businesses are often painted into a corner. They unwittingly lock themselves and their companies into a rigid bureaucratic way of dealing with rules, regulations, and compliance matters.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To create a predicament or problem for oneself; to do something that leaves one with no good alternatives or solutions."
],
"links": [
[
"predicament",
"predicament"
],
[
"problem",
"problem"
],
[
"leaves",
"leave#Verb"
],
[
"good",
"good#Adjective"
],
[
"alternative",
"alternative"
],
[
"solution",
"solution"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To create a predicament or problem for oneself; to do something that leaves one with no good alternatives or solutions."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈpeɪnt wʌnsɛlf ɪntʊ ə ˈkɔɹnɚ/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈpeɪnt wʌnsɛlf ɪntʊ ə ˈkɔːnə(ɹ)/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈpeɪnt wʌnsɛlf ɪntu ə ˈkɔɹnɚ/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-au-paint oneself into a corner.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/ce/En-au-paint_oneself_into_a_corner.ogg/En-au-paint_oneself_into_a_corner.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/En-au-paint_oneself_into_a_corner.ogg"
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],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "back oneself into a corner"
},
{
"word": "box oneself into a corner"
},
{
"word": "get oneself into a corner"
},
{
"word": "talk oneself into a corner"
},
{
"word": "write oneself into a corner"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "male sig selv op i et hjørne"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "jezelf in de hoek schilderen"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "maalata itsensä nurkkaan"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"tags": [
"Quebec"
],
"word": "se peinturer dans un coin"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "essere con le spalle al muro"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "male seg inn i et hjørne"
},
{
"code": "nn",
"lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "måle seg inn i eit hjørne"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"tags": [
"colloquial"
],
"word": "meterse en un berenjenal"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"tags": [
"colloquial"
],
"word": "meterse en un jardín"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to create a predicament or problem for oneself",
"word": "meterse en la boca del lobo"
}
],
"word": "paint oneself into a corner"
}
Download raw JSONL data for paint oneself into a corner meaning in English (6.4kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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.