to put the genie back in the bottle
1
9.7
- idiom
:
no se puede deshacer
- After revealing the confidential details, I realized there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle.
I think that we can't put the genie back in the bottle on remote work.
- I think that we can't put the genie back in the bottle on remote work.
Examples
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Kind of hard to put the genie back in the bottle once you let him out.
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Twitter cannot put the genie back in the bottle.
Blog text (23) -
That's why we're gonna put the genie back in the bottle.
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I think that we can't put the genie back in the bottle on remote work.
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Once the secret was out, she understood that she couldn't put the genie back in the bottle.
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They knew they had to face the consequences since they couldn't put the genie back in the bottle after the announcement.
Synonyms
102
2.6
Cancel the effect of an action or decision
1
9.9
To try to undo something after it has happened and cannot be changed
1
9.9
To try to take back words you have said
1
9.9
Try to make things the way they were after they changed
Antonyms
How Reversible
329
3.2
102
2.6
- Formal
41
6.0
1
9.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
put + the + genie + back + in + the + bottle
The literal parts ('put', 'genie', 'back', 'in', 'bottle') create a clear image of returning a magical being to a container, so learners can guess a sense of trying to contain or reverse something. However, mapping that image to the more specific idiomatic meaning (attempting to reverse an irreversible disclosure) requires cultural knowledge of the genie-in-a-bottle motif and a metaphorical inference, so the meaning is only partly predictable.
Etymology
The idiom put the genie back in the bottle comes from the picture of a genie escaping from a bottle when someone opens it. Once the genie is out, you cannot put it back in, so the phrase means 'to try to reverse something that cannot be undone'.