ProverbChallengeEnglish origin1532

Out of the frying pan, into the fire

Meaning: Escaping one bad situation only to end up in a worse one.

Example: “She left a terrible job for one that was even worse: out of the frying pan and into the fire.”

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, Italian, and 4 more languages

  • 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: Cadere dalla padella nella brace (literally: To fall from the frying pan into the embers)
  • Russian: Из огня да в полымя (Iz ognya da v polymya) (literally: Out of the fire and into the flames)
  • Polish: Z deszczu pod rynnę (literally: Out of the rain, under the gutter)
  • Arabic: كالمستجير من الرمضاء بالنار (Kal-mustajīr min ar-ramḍāʾ bin-nār) (literally: Like one fleeing the scorching sand into the fire)
  • Turkish: Yağmurdan kaçarken doluya tutulmak (literally: Fleeing the rain, getting caught in hail)

On the map

From bad to worse

The same idea in 23 versions, colored by the picture each one uses. Each country shows the version in its main language.

World map: into the fire (English, Italian, Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Swedish, Icelandic, Arabic); rain and puddles (German, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Finnish, Romanian, Turkish); beast after beast (Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Malay); other pictures (French, Spanish (Spain), Vietnamese, Japanese).

Download the full map with every saying (PNG)See all world maps

13 more languages on the map

  • Portuguese (Portugal) Sair da frigideira para cair no lume“To leave the frying pan and fall into the fire”Source: Infopédia (Porto Editora dictionary); Wiktionary
  • Swedish Ur askan i elden“Out of the ashes into the fire”Source: Dalin's Swedish dictionary (1850s, via SAOL history); Wiktionary
  • Icelandic Úr öskunni í eldinn“Out of the ashes into the fire”Source: Wiktionary; Reykjavík Grapevine
  • Dutch Van de regen in de drup raken“To get out of the rain into the drip”Source: Onze Taal; Stoett's Dutch proverb collection (DBNL)
  • Czech Z bláta do louže“Out of the mud into a puddle”Source: Radio Prague International; LanGeek
  • Slovak Z blata do kaluže“Out of the mud into a puddle”Source: Wiktionary; Slovak 8th-grade phraseology worksheet
  • Finnish Ojasta allikkoon“Out of the ditch into the puddle”Source: Wiktionary; Peda.net (Finnish school material on sayings)
  • Romanian Din lac în puț“From the lake into the well”Source: Dicționar de expresii (Paralela 45); Wiktionary
  • Chinese 才出狼窝，又入虎口 (Cái chū láng wō, yòu rù hǔ kǒu)“Just out of the wolf's den, into the tiger's mouth”Source: Zdic (Chinese dictionary, under 虎口); italki
  • Thai หนีเสือปะจระเข้ (Ni suea pa chorakhe)“Run from a tiger, meet a crocodile”Source: TruePlookPanya (Thai learning portal); Naewna
  • Indonesian Lepas dari mulut harimau, jatuh ke mulut buaya“Free from the tiger's mouth, into the crocodile's”Source: KBBI, Indonesia's official dictionary; Teknokrat exam questions
  • Malay Terlepas dari mulut buaya, masuk ke mulut harimau“Free from the crocodile's mouth, into the tiger's”Source: Wiktionary; Ling app (Malay idioms)
  • Vietnamese Tránh vỏ dưa gặp vỏ dừa“Dodge a melon rind, slip on a coconut shell”Source: VOH (Ho Chi Minh City radio); VietJack

More proverbs about Challenge

Explore another collection: Tongue Twisters

Tricky phrases to practice out loud, from languages around the world.

Browse all tongue twisters →

Keep exploring

Explore all proverbs →