tar baby
1
9.9
- noun
- Slur
:
[OFENSIVO] muñeco de alquitrán
- Getting involved in that argument was a real tar baby.
Examples
-
It's a tar baby!
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Trying to fix the company's financial issues became a tar baby as every solution led to more problems.
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He knew that taking sides would turn the dispute into a tar baby he couldn’t escape from.
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The contract negotiations turned into a tar baby, growing more complex with every meeting.
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When she tried to fix the broken software, it quickly became a tar baby full of unexpected issues.
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In the meeting, he realized the project was a tar baby that only created more complications.
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Addressing the staffing shortages turned out to be a tar baby, complicating the hiring process further.
Synonyms
17
6.5
A situation that causes many new problems when you start it
5
3.9
A situation where one problem causes another and makes the first problem worse
4
3.7
A difficult situation that is hard to deal with
2
8.7
A problem that stays with you and causes worry
A difficult problem that needs careful handling
A difficult problem with no easy solution
A difficult task that needs a lot of effort
Antonyms
How Complicated
Surface Forms
Morphology
The figurative sense 'a problematic situation that becomes more complicated the more one tries to handle it' cannot be derived from the literal meanings of 'tar' (a sticky substance) and 'baby' (an infant/person). This is an idiomatic, culturally specific reference (from a folktale) rather than a compositional combination, so a B1 learner who knows the words would not reliably predict the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Tar baby comes from an old folktale about a small figure made of sticky tar called a baby. In the tale, an animal hits the doll and gets more stuck the more he struggles, so the phrase now means 'a problem that only gets worse the more you try to handle it'.