to open Pandora's box
4
7.7
- idiom
- Informal
:
abrir la caja de Pandora
- When she decided to investigate the matter further, she realized she would open Pandora's box of problems.
Examples
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If we change the rules now, we might open Pandora's box and create many unforeseen issues.
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Do you think you can just open Pandora's Box and then just close it again?
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The problem is they opened Pandora's Box.
Blog text (18) -
The problem is that once you open Pandora's box of crazies, it's hard to get them back in.
Blog text (28) -
Are we to open Pandora's Box and report each other's transgressions, dear Processus?
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I've opened Pandora's box and there's trouble inside.
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The enactment of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913 allowed the government to impose a tax on your income, thereby opening Pandora's Box to a 60,000-page tax code and allowing politicians to sell their votes to the highest bidder.
Blog text (28) -
The new policy could open Pandora's box, leading to complications we never anticipated.
Synonyms
3
7.4
Create a difficult situation with many unexpected problems
How Troublesome
176
7.0
- Informal
4
4.3
- Informal
4
7.7
103
3.2
62
3.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
open + Pandora's + box
The meaning refers to the Greek myth of Pandora releasing evils by opening a container, so the sense 'to cause many unforeseen problems' cannot be derived from the literal words 'open' and 'box' without specific cultural/mythological knowledge about Pandora. This cultural, idiomatic reference makes the expression non-compositional and unpredictable for a B1 learner, so it is opaque.
Etymology
Open Pandora's box comes from an old Greek story. In the tale, Pandora opened a closed box and many bad things escaped, so today to open a Pandora's box means to cause many unexpected 'problems'.