Dictionary

paint oneself into a corner en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈpeɪnt wʌnˈsɛlf ˈɪntu ə ˈkɔɹnɚ/ (General-American)
• /ˈpeɪnt wʌnˈsɛlf ˈɪntʊ ə ˈkɔːnə(ɹ)/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From the idea that a person painting the floor of a room may inadvertently apply the paint over the whole floor and trap themselves in a corner away from any exit, so that to leave the room the person has no choice but to step on the fresh paint and ruin it.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To create a predicament or problem for oneself; to do something that leaves one with no good alternatives or solutions.
   • Executives and businesses are often painted into a corner. They unwittingly lock themselves and their companies into a rigid bureaucratic way of dealing with rules, regulations, and compliance matters. 2011, Hillel Glazer, “The Man versus the Money”, in High Performance Operations: Leverage Compliance to Lower Costs, Increase Profits, and Gain Competitive Advantage, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: FT Press, →ISBN, pages 57–58:
   • In his diary entry from 8 January 1914, Franz Kafka writes: "What have I in common with Jews? I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe" […] [T]his corner could also, tragically, describe the place where Kafka feels he should position himself, painting himself into a corner, into a dead end, where nothing but bare life stripped of all existential substance and support can subsist. 2009, Vivian Liska, “Introduction: Uncommon Communities”, in When Kafka Says We: Uncommon Communities in German-Jewish Literature, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN:
   • The Coens [Coen brothers] write their screenplays in a manner as unorthodox as the films that result from them. […] They paint themselves into a corner, plotwise, then perform whatever literary gymnastics are necessary in order to paint themselves out. 2001, Carolyn R. Russell, “Introduction”, in The Films of Joel and Ethan Coen, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, pages 3–4:
   • [Giuliana] Tedeschi thus rejects the mythicization of the Holocaust, in her book and in others'. By claiming a separate, privileged space for documentary writing and survivor nonfiction, she in effect paints herself into a corner, forced thereafter to deny the presence—even the abundance—of literary tropes and writerly devices in her own work. 2007, Risa B. Sodi, “Giuliana Tedeschi: Wife, Mother, Survivor”, in Narrative & Imperative: The First Fifty Years of Italian Holocaust Writing (1944–1994), New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang Publishing, →ISBN, page 141:

Forms

Synonyms

talk oneself into a corner · box oneself into a corner · get oneself into a corner · back oneself into a corner · write oneself into a corner

Translations (10)

nl jezelf in de hoek schilderen (to create a predicament or problem for oneself) · fr se peinturer dans un coin (to create a predicament or problem for oneself) · es meterse en un berenjenal (to create a predicament or problem for oneself) · es meterse en un jardín (to create a predicament or problem for oneself) · nn måle seg inn i eit hjørne (to create a predicament or problem for oneself) · it essere con le spalle al muro (to create a predicament or problem for oneself) · fi maalata itsensä nurkkaan (to create a predicament or problem for oneself) · da male sig selv op i et hjørne (to create a predicament or problem for oneself) · nb male seg inn i et hjørne (to create a predicament or problem for oneself) · es meterse en la boca del lobo (to create a predicament or problem for oneself)