out of the frying pan (and) into the fire

out of the frying pan (and) into the fire

From a bad, stressful, or dangerous situation into one that is even worse. Those poor refugees escaped the famine but ended up in a war zone—out of the frying pan into the fire. I thought my old job was stressful, but my new one is 10 times worse. It's like going out of the frying pan and into the fire.

See also: fire, fry, of, out, pan

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

*out of the frying pan (and) into the fire

Fig. from a bad situation to a worse situation. (*Typically: get ~; go ~; jump ~.) When I tried to argue about my fine for a traffic violation, the judge charged me with contempt of court. I really went out of the frying pan into the fire. I got deeply in debt. Then I really got out of the frying pan into the fire when I lost my job.

See also: fire, fry, of, out, pan

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

out of the frying pan into the fire

From a bad situation to one that is much worse. For example, After Karen quit the first law firm she went to one with even longer hours-out of the frying pan into the fire . This expression, a proverb in many languages, was first recorded in English in 1528.

See also: fire, fry, of, out, pan

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

out of the frying pan into the fire

or

from the frying pan into the fire

If someone has gone out of the frying pan into the fire or from the frying pan into the fire, they have moved from a bad situation to an even worse one. I was hoping to get my career back on track after a bad time at Villa. But as it turned out, I'd gone out of the frying pan into the fire. Having finally left one bad relationship, she jumped from the frying pan into the fire.

See also: fire, fry, of, out, pan

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

out of the frying pan into the fire

from a bad situation to one that is worse.

See also: fire, fry, of, out, pan

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

out of the ˈfrying pan (and) into the ˈfire

(saying) out of one situation of danger or difficulty into another (usually worse) one: It was a case of out of the frying pan into the fire: she divorced her husband, who was an alcoholic, and then married another man with the same problem.

See also: fire, fry, of, out, pan

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

out of the frying pan into the fire

From bad to much worse. This cliché, a proverb in many languages, was already known in the early sixteenth century, appearing in Sir Thomas More’s treatise on heresy (1528), “They lepe lyke a flounder out of the fryenge panne into the fyre.” Shaw used it in one of his cynical remarks: “We shall fall out of the frying-pan of the football club into the fire of the Sunday School” (The Revolutionist’s Handbook, 1903).

See also: fire, fry, of, out, pan

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer