Back to Square One.
English
idiom
To start again from the beginning after something fails.
Trusted by1.5M+English learners & teachers worldwide
To start again from the beginning after something fails.
Trusted by1.5M+English learners & teachers worldwide
To start again from the very beginning after a plan or effort has failed or been rejected.
When you go back to square one, all the progress you made is effectively lost and you have to restart.
It describes frustrating setbacks where nothing was saved from the previous attempt.
"Back to the Drawing Board"
—
To redesign or rethink a specific plan that didn't work
"Start From Scratch"
—
To begin something entirely new with no prior foundation
"Back to Square One"
—
Returning to the very beginning after all progress has been lost
The vendor pulled out — we're back to square one on the software selection process.
Understood. I'll restart the evaluation and have new options ready by Friday.
We're still disagreeing about the same things — are we just back to square one?
Not exactly — I think we understand each other better. Let's try a different approach.
We spent four months planning the launch, and they canceled the product the day before.
Back to square one — that's devastating. What are you going to do next?
