out of the frying pan, into the fire

English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Prepositional phrase

out of the frying pan, into the fire

(idiomatic) Move or get from an already bad situation to a worse one; end up in a worse situation when trying to escape from a bad or difficult one.

Usage notes

Used with verbs like go, move, and jump.

Translations

get from an already bad situation to a worse one

Chinese:
Mandarin: 每況愈下／每况愈下 (zh) (měikuàngyùxià)
Czech: z louže pod okap, z deště pod okap (cs), z bláta do louže (cs) (literally “out of the puddle/rain under the drainpipe, out of the mud into the puddle”)
Danish: fra asken i ilden
Dutch: van de regen in de drup, van kwaad tot erger
Esperanto: fali de sitelo en barelon (literally “to fall from a bucket into a barrel”)
Finnish: ojasta allikkoon (literally “out of a ditch, into a puddle”)
French: de Charybde en Scylla (fr) (literally “[to go] from Charybdis to Scylla”)
German: vom Regen in die Traufe (literally “from the rain into the eaves”)
Hebrew: מן הפח אל הפחת‎ (he) (literally “from the trap to the pit”) (adapted from Isaiah 24:18)
Hungarian: cseberből vederbe (literally “from the can into the bucket”)
Icelandic: úr öskunni í eldinn (literally “out of the ashes into the fire”)
Irish: amach as na muineacha is isteach sna driseacha (literally “out of the thickets and into the thornbushes”), ón tine chun na gríosaí (literally “from the fire to the embers”)
Italian: cadere dalla padella nella brace (literally “to fall from the frying pan into the embers”), dalla padella alla brace (literally “from the pan into the embers”)
Japanese: 一難去ってまた一難 (ja) (ichinan satte mata ichinan)
Lithuanian: nuo vilko ant meškos
Macedonian: од дожд на град (od dožd na grad, literally “from rain to hail”)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: fra asken til ilden (no) (literally “out of the ashes into the fire”)
Polish: wpadać z deszczu pod rynnę impf, wpaść z deszczu pod rynnę (pl) pf
Portuguese: da frigideira para o fogo (literally “from the frying pan into the fire”)
Romanian: din lac în puț (literally “from the lake into the well”)
Russian: из огня́ да в по́лымя (ru) (iz ognjá da v pólymja, literally “out of fire and into flame”), от во́лка бежа́л, да на медве́дя попа́л (ot vólka bežál, da na medvédja popál, literally “ran from a wolf, but ran into a bear”)
Slovak: z blata do kaluže (literally “out of the mud into a puddle”)
Spanish: huir del fuego para caer en las brasas (literally “flee from the fire to fall into the embers”), salir de Guatemala y meterse en Guatepeor (literally “to leave Guate-bad and end up in Guate-worse”), salir de Málaga y entrar en Malagón, éramos pocos y parió la abuela (es) (literally “there were few of us, and Grandma gave birth”)
Swedish: ur askan i elden (literally “out of the ashes into the fire”)
Thai: หนีเสือปะจระเข้ (nǐi-sʉ̌ʉa-bpà-jɔɔ-rá-kêe, literally “escape from a tiger only to meet a crocodile”)
Turkish: yağmurdan kaçarken doluya tutulmak (tr) (literally “out of the rain into the hail”)
Ukrainian: з вогню та в полум'я (z vohnju ta v polumʺja), з дощу та під ринву (z došču ta pid rynvu)
Vietnamese: tránh vỏ dưa gặp vỏ dừa (literally “escape from a watermelon rind only to meet a coconut shell”)

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.