Idiom
paint oneself into a corner
Meaning
To create a predicament or problem for oneself; to do something that leaves one with no good alternatives or solutions.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He painted himself into a corner by making too many promises.”
“I paint myself into a corner when I spend my whole budget on Monday.”
“By refusing to compromise during the negotiations, the manager painted himself into a corner with no way out.”
“If you tell your boss you can finish the entire project by Friday, you might paint yourself into a corner if the software fails.”
“The politician painted himself into a corner with his radical campaign rhetoric, leaving him no room to negotiate once he assumed office.”
Examples
simple
“He painted himself into a corner by making too many promises.”
“I paint myself into a corner when I spend my whole budget on Monday.”
contextual
“By refusing to compromise during the negotiations, the manager painted himself into a corner with no way out.”
“If you tell your boss you can finish the entire project by Friday, you might paint yourself into a corner if the software fails.”
complex
“The politician painted himself into a corner with his radical campaign rhetoric, leaving him no room to negotiate once he assumed office.”
Origin
The image is that of a domestic worker who begins to paint a floor without first identifying the location of the exit. The individual covers the entire surface with wet paint, only to find themselves confined to a corner from which there is no escape that does not involve the destruction of their own work. One simply steps on the fresh paint and ruins it, or one remains in the corner until the medium dries.
Key words
Related idioms
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