out of the frying pan and into the fire
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To move from a bad situation to a worse one
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Chuyển từ tình huống xấu sang tình huống còn tồi tệ hơn
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: jumping from a hot frying pan into a fire
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “out of the frying pan and into the fire” mean?
To move from a bad situation to a worse one Literally: jumping from a hot frying pan into a fire
Is “out of the frying pan and into the fire” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.