Go Back To The Drawing Board Idiom Meaning

Go back to the drawing board – It means to start a new one since a plan didn’t work out; it means going back to square one. This term represents a failed notion and implies that modifications are required if success is to be obtained the next time. One should not get demotivated if a plan fails, rather should focus on devising new techniques and strategies and implementing them to achieve the set targets and goals. Someone may opt to design a project on a drawing board (or architect’s table) before beginning it. Writing down data and creating a rough outline of events might be beneficial. While solving maths problems, square numbers, and equations, we sometimes aren’t able to find the correct answer and get stuck. At such a point, we usually go back to the drawing board, start all over again to find where we went wrong, and then solve the equation with the correct steps. 

Go Back to the Drawing Board Origin

The original use of the word was most likely inspired by a caption in The New Yorker magazine by Peter Arno during WWII. It showed a man watching an airplane explode while holding a set of blueprints, saying, “Well, Go back to the drawing board.” The variant is supposed to have originated from a board or street game in which an unfavorable roll of the dice or a marker sends the player back to the start of the course. In the 1930s, British sportscasters popularised it when a printed radio program featured a grid with numbered squares to help listeners follow the description of a soccer game.

Go Back To The Drawing Board Idiom Examples

One great example of Go back to the drawing board idiom can be COVID-19 which has caused many alterations at lightning speed. We had to unlearn many of our habits and adopt the new ones for everyone’s safety, doing things differently then. The government went back to the drawing board, figuring things out exclusively every time a plan failed. Even in today’s post covid world, people are again trying to adjust and struggle to get back to their normal lives. It’s again time to go back to the drawing board meaning and draw the plan based on the evolving people’s needs.

Some sentences that we can make by using this idiom are: 

1. Casper doesn’t have the time to go back to the drawing board.
2. If Dan does not understand this, he should probably go back to the drawing board.
3. It is better to go back to the drawing board rather than get insulted by the committee. 
4. One should either be very confident in an idea or go back to the drawing board, but nothing in between.

Conclusion

The original use of the word was most likely inspired by a caption in The New Yorker magazine by Peter Arno during WWII. There are countless instances when we refer to this idiom, consciously or subconsciously. Every time we sit down to write an article, essay, or even a story, there are times when we discard a piece written of a thousand words just because it simply feels wrong to us. This happens a lot with every person, leading us to go back to the drawing board.