Word.ws English Dictionary

putting the genie back in the bottle

putting the genie back in the bottle is the present participle and gerund of put the genie back in the bottle.

Meaning of put the genie back in the bottle

Verb

put the genie back in the bottle (third-person singular simple present puts the genie back in the bottle, present participle putting the genie back in the bottle, simple past and past participle put the genie back in the bottle)

  1. (idiomatic) To revert a situation; to put things back as they were before something (usually an unwelcome thing) became a reality.
    • Near-synonym: unring a bell

Questions about putting the genie back in the bottle

What is putting the genie back in the bottle the present participle and gerund of?
Putting the genie back in the bottle is the present participle and gerund of put the genie back in the bottle.

Words near putting the genie back in the bottle in the dictionary

  1. putting the cork back in the bottle
  2. putting the dead wood on
  3. putting the fear of God into
  4. putting the finger on
  5. putting the frighteners on someone
  6. putting the genie back in the bottle
  7. putting the hammer down
  8. putting the heat on
  9. putting the herd on someone
  10. putting the kibosh on
  11. putting the kybosh on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: putting the genie back in the bottle (page history and authors); put the genie back in the bottle (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.

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