back to the drawing board

English

Etymology

Coined as “Well, back to the old drawing board.” as the caption of a Peter Arno cartoon of The New Yorker of March 1, 1941, depicting an engineer walking away from a crashed plane. (cartoon)

Adverb

back to the drawing board

1. (idiomatic) Back to the beginning following an unsuccessful attempt.

   Well, that didn't work at all, so it's back to the drawing board, I guess.

Translations

back to the beginning

• Dutch: terug bij af (nl)
• Russian: начать с нуля ("begin from zero")

• Swedish: tillbaka till ritbordet

See also

• square one