Modern-day Idiom
The expression "back to the drawing board" is used when a plan or course of action needs to be changed, often drastically; usually due a very unsuccessful result; e.g., "The battle plan, the result of months of conferences, failed because the enemy retreated too far back. It was back to the drawing board for the army captains."
The phrase was coined in the caption to a Peter Arno cartoon of The New Yorker of March 1, 1941 (cartoon)
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Famous quotes containing the word idiom:
“The “sayings” of a community, its proverbs, are its characteristic comment upon life; they imply its history, suggest its attitude toward the world and its way of accepting life. Such an idiom makes the finest language any writer can have; and he can never get it with a notebook. He himself must be able to think and feel in that speech—it is a gift from heart to heart.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)