out of the frying pan, into the fire

English

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.

Alternative forms

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

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

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) (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 (out of a ditch, into a pond)
• French: aller de Charybde en Scylla (to go from Charybdis to Scylla)
• German: vom Regen in die Traufe; aus dem Regen in die Traufe (from the rain into the water running down the roof)
• Hungarian: cseberből vederbe (from the can into the bucket)
• Icelandic: úr öskunni í eldinn (out of the ashes into the fire)
• Irish: amach as na muineacha is isteach sna driseacha (out of the thickets and into the thornbushes)
• Italian: cadere dalla padella nella brace (to fall from the frying pan into the embers), dalla padella alla brace
• 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) (out of the ashes into the fire)

• Polish: wpaść z deszczu pod rynnę (pl)
• Portuguese: da frigideira para o fogo
• Romanian: din lac în puț (from the lake into the pit)
• Russian: из огня́ да в по́лымя (ru) (iz ognjá da v pólymja) (out of fire and into flame), от во́лка бежа́л, да на медве́дя попа́л (ot vólka bežál, da na medvédja popál) (ran from a wolf, but ran into a bear)
• Spanish: huir del fuego para caer en las brasas, saliste de Guatemala y te metiste en Guatapeor, éramos pocos y parió la abuela (es)
• Swedish: ur askan i elden (out of the ashes into the fire)
• Thai: หนีเสือปะจระเข้ (nǐi-sʉ̌ʉa-bpà-jɔɔ-rá-kêe) (escape from a tiger only to meet a crocodile)
• Turkish: yağmurdan kaçarken doluya tutulmak (tr) (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 (escape from a watermelon rind only to meet a coconut shell)
• Westrobothnian: båʈʈe tjärr å ti värr