Word.ws English Dictionary

out of the frying pan, into the fire

out of the frying pan, into the fire prepositional phrase: transitioning from an unfavorable situation to an even more adverse one; finding oneself in a more difficult or detrimental position as a result of attempting to escape an already problematic circumstance.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Transitioning from an unfavorable situation to an even more adverse one; finding oneself in a more difficult or detrimental position as a result of attempting to escape an already problematic circumstance.

out of the frying pan, into the fire meaning in Arabic and Vietnamese

out of the frying pan, into the fire in Arabic

get from an already bad situation to a worse one
اِسْتَجَارَ مِنَ الرَّمْضَاءَ بِالنَّارِ istajāra mina r-ramḍāʔa bi-n-nāri

out of the frying pan, into the fire in Vietnamese

get from an already bad situation to a worse one
tránh vỏ dưa gặp vỏ dừa

Forms of out of the frying pan, into the fire

alternative formout of the frying pan into the fire
alternative formout of the frying pan and into the fire

Questions about out of the frying pan, into the fire

What does out of the frying pan, into the fire mean?
Out of the frying pan, into the fire means transitioning from an unfavorable situation to an even more adverse one; finding oneself in a more difficult or detrimental position as a result of attempting to escape an already problematic circumstance.
What is out of the frying pan, into the fire in Arabic?
Out of the frying pan, into the fire in Arabic is اِسْتَجَارَ مِنَ الرَّمْضَاءَ بِالنَّارِ (istajāra mina r-ramḍāʔa bi-n-nāri). See Out of the frying pan, into the fire meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is out of the frying pan, into the fire?
Out of the frying pan, into the fire is a prepositional phrase.

Words near out of the frying pan, into the fire in the dictionary

  1. out of the box
  2. out of the chute
  3. out of the common
  4. out of the corner of one's eye
  5. out of the frying pan and into the fire
  6. out of the frying pan, into the fire
  7. out of the gate
  8. out of the goodness of one's heart
  9. out of the loop
  10. out of the money
  11. out of the mouths of babes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: out of the frying pan, into the fire (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-out of the frying pan, into the fire.ogg.

Cite this entry: “out of the frying pan, into the fire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/out_of_the_frying_pan%2C_into_the_fire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.