The idiom out of the frying pan into the fire means to go from a bad or difficult situation to a worse one, often as a result of trying to escape from the first one. For example, if someone quits their job because they don’t like their boss, but then finds out that their new boss is even worse, they have gone out of the frying pan into the fire.
The phrase comes from a 15th-century fable about some fish that jump out of a frying pan of boiling oil, only to land on burning coals. The moral of the story is that we should be careful not to make things worse for ourselves when we are avoiding present dangers.
Some similar expressions in other languages are:
- Japanese: 火中の栗を拾う (hichuu no kuri o hirou) – to pick up chestnuts from the fire
- French: sauter de la poêle dans le feu – to jump from the frying pan into the fire
- Spanish: salir de Guatemala y entrar en Guatepeor – to leave Guatemala and enter Guateworse
- German: vom Regen in die Traufe kommen – to come from the rain into the eaves
