go/be back to square one
informalto be forced to think of a new course of action because your first course of action failed:
The deal with the house fell through so I'm afraid we're back to square one.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Beginnings and starts
- a baptism of/by fire idiom
- a clean sheet/slate idiom
- advent
- baptism
- beginning
- clean
- inception
- initiation
- institution
- introduction
- jumping-off point
- onset
- seed
- square
- starting time
- the outset
- the thin end of the wedge idiom
- thin
- trigger
- zero hour
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