Mentor Josephan's Idiom of The Day #2

7 年前

Go BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD
Also, 
Back to Square One.
Return to the planning stage of a project
Back to the beginning because the current attempt was unsuccessful, 
 
1. Our plan to raise money for a new swimming pool didn’t work. Now we’re back to the drawing board and trying to think of a better plan.
2. The idea of buying computers for the public schools through the lottery failed. The city leaders had to go back to the drawing board to think of another way to come up with the money.
3. The team has failed again to complete their task, I want them to go back and start from square one.

"The first term originated during World War II, most likely from the caption of a cartoon by Peter Arno in The New Yorker magazine. It pictured a man who held a set of blueprints and was watching an airplane explode. The variant is thought to come from aboard game or street game where an unlucky throw of dice or a marker sends the player back to the beginning of the course. It was popularized by British sports-casters in the 1930s, when the printed radio program included a grid with numbered squares to help listeners follow the description of a soccer game."  Cite: The American Heritage® Dictionary  

Idiom: a group of words that means something different than the individual words it contains.
"Americans use about four idioms in every minute of conversation. If you don't see the light of American English Idiom, you're in the dark understanding American English!"  Mentor Josephan P. Sterling
Every day I will post a new Idiom, so stay tuned to Mentor Josephan's Idiom of The Day.  
Are you ready to speak English or not!™ 