# What does ‘back to the drawing board’ mean?

To “back to the drawing board” means to start over from the beginning. A 20th-century idiom, popularised by a 1941 New Yorker cartoon; not in Brewer's 1898.

## What it means

- A 20th-century idiom, popularised by a 1941 New Yorker cartoon; not in Brewer's 1898.

## Action steps

1. Common cheerful admission of a failed attempt.
2. Example: The prototype flopped — back to the drawing board.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Internet Archive scan](https://archive.org/details/brewers-dictionary-of-phrase-and-fable)

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