A situation in which, one has to return to an earlier state due to certain drawbacks or failures

Etymology:

  • This idiom has taken birth from different street an board games that have boxes or squares in them. Players of this game start from the first box and advance forward in a specific pattern to reach the last box. If there is any error in the game a players needs to restart from the beginning. This saying has been copied from the act of this game, which tells us to start from the beginning.
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Due to technical errors in the project our team was back to square one.

Submitted on February 25, 2019

Additional definitions for 'Back to Square One':

back to square oneLocated back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure.
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    "Back to Square One." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/back-to-square-one_44468>.

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