Idioms

back to the drawing board

This page is about the idiom back to the drawing board

Meaning

You can say "back to the drawing board" when a plan or a design has failed, and you decide to begin all over again.

For example

  • Their plans to open a hotel in Fiji fell through, so it was back to the drawing board.

  • Our new drug worked on rats, but when it was tried on people it failed, so we had to go back to the drawing board and start again.

Quick Quiz

We started an online business, but after a while it was back to the drawing board because

a. we couldn't make a profit

b. we made a lot of money

c. we wanted to improve our drawing
a) we couldn't make a profit b) we made a lot of money c) we wanted to improve our drawing

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Common English Idioms

Contributor: Matt Errey