"write oneself into a corner" meaning in English

See write oneself into a corner in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-write oneself into a corner.wav Forms: writes oneself into a corner [present, singular, third-person], writing oneself into a corner [participle, present], writed oneself into a corner [participle, past], writed oneself into a corner [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} write oneself into a corner (third-person singular simple present writes oneself into a corner, present participle writing oneself into a corner, simple past and past participle writed oneself into a corner)
  1. (idiomatic, narratology) To reach a narrative point in which the story one is writing gets stuck, leaving no good or satisfactory alternative or resolution. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: back oneself into a corner, paint oneself into a corner
    Sense id: en-write_oneself_into_a_corner-en-verb-8VuUm7m7 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Narratology Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, narratology, sciences
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "writes oneself into a corner",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "writing oneself into a corner",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "writed oneself into a corner",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "writed oneself into a corner",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "write oneself into a corner (third-person singular simple present writes oneself into a corner, present participle writing oneself into a corner, simple past and past participle writed oneself into a corner)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "attestations": [
        {
          "date": "from 19th c.",
          "references": []
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Narratology",
          "orig": "en:Narratology",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              251,
              282
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1894 July 13, Art in Advertising, volume IX, number 5, page 168:",
          "text": "When Rudyard Kipling wrote the words, “That belongs to another story,” he conferred upon scribbling mankind an inestimabie blessing. How we ever got along without the accommodating little sentence, I don't know, but it has evidently come to stay. You write yourself “into a corner,” and see no way out of it except to tear up the sheet and begin over, when–Presto! “That belongs to another story” pops into your head and your awkward sentence is gracefully capped.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To reach a narrative point in which the story one is writing gets stuck, leaving no good or satisfactory alternative or resolution."
      ],
      "id": "en-write_oneself_into_a_corner-en-verb-8VuUm7m7",
      "links": [
        [
          "narratology",
          "narratology"
        ],
        [
          "narrative",
          "narrative"
        ],
        [
          "story",
          "story"
        ],
        [
          "stuck",
          "stuck"
        ],
        [
          "satisfactory",
          "satisfactory"
        ],
        [
          "alternative",
          "alternative"
        ],
        [
          "resolution",
          "resolution"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, narratology) To reach a narrative point in which the story one is writing gets stuck, leaving no good or satisfactory alternative or resolution."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "back oneself into a corner"
        },
        {
          "word": "paint oneself into a corner"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "narratology",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-write oneself into a corner.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/93/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Sapaa-write_oneself_into_a_corner.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Sapaa-write_oneself_into_a_corner.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/93/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Sapaa-write_oneself_into_a_corner.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Sapaa-write_oneself_into_a_corner.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "write oneself into a corner"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "writes oneself into a corner",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "writing oneself into a corner",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "writed oneself into a corner",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "writed oneself into a corner",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "write oneself into a corner (third-person singular simple present writes oneself into a corner, present participle writing oneself into a corner, simple past and past participle writed oneself into a corner)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "back oneself into a corner"
    },
    {
      "word": "paint oneself into a corner"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "attestations": [
        {
          "date": "from 19th c.",
          "references": []
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "en:Narratology"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              251,
              282
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1894 July 13, Art in Advertising, volume IX, number 5, page 168:",
          "text": "When Rudyard Kipling wrote the words, “That belongs to another story,” he conferred upon scribbling mankind an inestimabie blessing. How we ever got along without the accommodating little sentence, I don't know, but it has evidently come to stay. You write yourself “into a corner,” and see no way out of it except to tear up the sheet and begin over, when–Presto! “That belongs to another story” pops into your head and your awkward sentence is gracefully capped.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To reach a narrative point in which the story one is writing gets stuck, leaving no good or satisfactory alternative or resolution."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "narratology",
          "narratology"
        ],
        [
          "narrative",
          "narrative"
        ],
        [
          "story",
          "story"
        ],
        [
          "stuck",
          "stuck"
        ],
        [
          "satisfactory",
          "satisfactory"
        ],
        [
          "alternative",
          "alternative"
        ],
        [
          "resolution",
          "resolution"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, narratology) To reach a narrative point in which the story one is writing gets stuck, leaving no good or satisfactory alternative or resolution."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "narratology",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-write oneself into a corner.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/93/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Sapaa-write_oneself_into_a_corner.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Sapaa-write_oneself_into_a_corner.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/93/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Sapaa-write_oneself_into_a_corner.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Sapaa-write_oneself_into_a_corner.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "write oneself into a corner"
}

Download raw JSONL data for write oneself into a corner meaning in English (2.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-11-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-11-01 using wiktextract (2c28785 and a050b89). 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.