out of the frying pan, into the fire

English

Alternative forms

• out of the frying pan into the fire
• out of the frying pan and into the fire

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

out of the frying pan, into the fire

1. (idiomatic) Move or get from an already bad situation to a worse one; end up in a worse situation when trying escape from a bad or difficult one.

Usage notes

Used with verbs like go, move, and jump.

Translations

get from an already bad situation to a worse one

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 每況愈下 (zh), 每况愈下 (zh) (měikuàngyùxià)

• Czech: z louže pod okap, z deště pod okap (cs), z bláta do louže (cs) (literally “out of the puddle/rain under the drainpipe, out of the mud into the puddle”)
• Danish: fra asken i ilden
• Dutch: van de regen in de drup, van kwaad tot erger
• Finnish: ojasta allikkoon (literally “out of a ditch, into a puddle”)
• French: de Charybde en Scylla (fr) (literally “[to go] from Charybdis to Scylla”)
• German: vom Regen in die Traufe (literally “from the rain into the water running down the roof”)
• Hebrew: מן הפח אל הפחת‎ (literally “from the trap to the pit”) (adapted from Isaiah 24:18)
• Hungarian: cseberből vederbe (literally “from the can into the bucket”)
• Icelandic: úr öskunni í eldinn (literally “out of the ashes into the fire”)
• Irish: amach as na muineacha is isteach sna driseacha (literally “out of the thickets and into the thornbushes”)
• Italian: cadere dalla padella nella brace (literally “to fall from the frying pan into the embers”), dalla padella alla brace (literally “from the pan into the embers”)
• Japanese: 一難去って又一難 (ichinan satte mata itinan)
• Lithuanian: nuo vilko ant meškos

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fra asken til ilden (no) (literally “out of the ashes into the fire”)

• Polish: wpaść z deszczu pod rynnę (pl) (literally “to go from a rain into a gutter”)
• Portuguese: da frigideira para o fogo (literally “from the frying pan into the fire”)
• Romanian: din lac în puț (literally “from the lake into the pit”)
• Russian: из огня́ да в по́лымя (ru) (iz ognjá da v pólymja, literally “out of fire and into flame”), от во́лка бежа́л, да на медве́дя попа́л (ot vólka bežál, da na medvédja popál, literally “ran from a wolf, but ran into a bear”)
• Slovak: z blata do kaluže (literally: out of the mud into a puddle)
• Spanish: huir del fuego para caer en las brasas (literally “flee from the fire to fall into the embers”), salir de Guatemala y meterse en Guatepeor (literally “to leave Guate-bad and end up in Guate-worse”), salir de Málaga y entrar en Malagón, éramos pocos y parió la abuela (es) (literally “there were few of us, and Grandma gave birth”)
• Swedish: ur askan i elden (literally “out of the ashes into the fire”)
• Thai: หนีเสือปะจระเข้ (nǐi-sʉ̌ʉa-bpà-jɔɔ-rá-kêe, literally “escape from a tiger only to meet a crocodile”)
• Turkish: yağmurdan kaçarken doluya tutulmak (tr) (literally “out of the rain into the hail”)
• Ukrainian: з вогню та в полум'я (z vohnju ta v polumʺja), з дощу та під ринву (z došču ta pid rynvu)
• Vietnamese: tránh vỏ dưa gặp vỏ dừa (literally “escape from a watermelon rind only to meet a coconut shell”)
• Westrobothnian: båʈʈe tjärr å ti värr