English-Portuguese translations for back to square one

• voltar à estaca zero
  Penso que devemos de algum modo voltar à estaca zero e que deve ser a Comissão a formular a sua própria proposta, tendo em conta as indicações do Parlamento. I believe that we must somehow go back to square one and that the Commission must produce its own proposal, taking Parliament's recommendations into consideration.

Definition of back to square one

• Located back at the start, as after a dead-end or failure
• Back to the start, as after a dead-end or failure

Examples

• After spending six hours on the intake we realized that there was nothing wrong with it, so we are back to square one.
• After spending six hours on the intake we realized that there was nothing wrong with it, so we went back to square one.

Related words

• to have one's back to the wall
• go back to one's roots
• have one’s back to the wall
• have one's back to the wall
• to break somebody's back