Prepositional phrase
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out of the frying pan, into the fire
- (idiomatic) Move or get from an already bad situation to a worse one; end up in a worse situation when trying to escape from a bad or difficult one.
Used with verbs like go, move, and jump.
get from an already bad situation to a worse one
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 每況愈下／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
- Esperanto: fali de sitelo en barelon (literally “to fall from a bucket into a barrel”)
- 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 eaves”)
- Hebrew: מן הפח אל הפחת (he) (literally “from the trap to the pit”) (adapted from Isaiah 24:18)
- Hungarian: cseberből vederbe (hu) (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”), ón tine chun na gríosaí (literally “from the fire to the embers”)
- 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: 一難去ってまた一難 (ja) (ichinan satte mata ichinan)
- Lithuanian: nuo vilko ant meškos
- Macedonian: од дожд на град (od dožd na grad, literally “from rain to hail”)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: fra asken til ilden (no) (literally “out of the ashes into the fire”)
- Polish: wpadać z deszczu pod rynnę impf, wpaść z deszczu pod rynnę (pl) pf
- 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 well”)
- 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”)
- Scottish Gaelic: às an dris anns an droigheann (literally “out of the thorny bush into the thorny bush”), às an teine don ghrìosaich (literally “out of the fire to the embers”)
- 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 (sv) (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”)
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