Out of the frying pan, into the fire
Meaning: Escaping one bad situation only to end up in a worse one.
Origin: Thomas More used it in 1532, in his controversy with William Tyndale: leaping out of the frying pan into the fire. The ancient Greeks had a similar image, out of the smoke into the flame. It means escaping one danger only to land in a worse one.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, German, and Italian
- French: Tomber de Charybde en Scylla (literally: To fall from Charybdis to Scylla)
- Spanish: Salir de Guatemala para entrar en Guatepeor (literally: Leaving Guate-bad to enter Guate-worse)
- Japanese: 一難去ってまた一難 (Ichinan satte mata ichinan) (literally: One trouble passes, another arrives)
- German: Vom Regen in die Traufe kommen (literally: To come out of the rain into the roof gutter)
- Italian: Cader della padella nelle bragie (literally: To fall out of the frying-pan into the fire)
More proverbs about Challenge
- The road to success is paved with failure — Success requires learning from mistakes.
- Walk softly and carry a big stick — Act gently but maintain the power to enforce if needed.
- Opportunity knocks but once — Chances don't come twice; seize them when they appear.
- The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward — Greater rewards require greater risks.
- Divide and conquer — Achieve dominance by breaking opposition into smaller parts.
- When it rains, it pours — Troubles often come all at once.
From our tongue twisters
- De koetsier poetst de postkoets met postkoetspoets. — Turns on the gap between the Dutch 'oe' and 'o', with a run of 'ts' and 'p' stops layered…
- Wij smachten naar achtentachtig prachtige nachten. — Five words carrying the Dutch guttural 'cht', the sound foreigners find hardest to produc…
- Liesje leerde Lotje lopen langs de lange Lindelaan. — Eight consecutive l-words, with the vowel behind the l changing every time.