How to Use square one in a Sentence

square one

noun
Definition of square onenext
Synonyms for square onenext
  • They lost everything and found themselves back at square one.
  • Wentz failed, both on the field and off, putting the Colts back at square one.
    — Joel A. Erickson, The Indianapolis Star, 21 Mar. 2022
  • As for Hana, Chrissie, and Ester, the trio got into the spirt of the game from square one.
    — Brianna Wiest, Teen Vogue, 21 Dec. 2017
  • The decision by the CDC will not send us back to square one.
    — Kent Sepkowitz, CNN, 15 Apr. 2022
  • There was a round turret at one end of the main house and a square one at the other.
    — John Kelly, Washington Post, 10 Feb. 2018
  • Now $44 million and four years later, the cars are gone and the city is back to square one.
    — Ari Plachta, Sacramento Bee, 7 Mar. 2024
  • The film sets the stakes high from square one by showing us what the reporters will try to stop.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 17 Nov. 2022
  • Four years after the flood, Sidney was back to square one.
    — Christopher Flavelle, Bloomberg.com, 2 May 2018
  • Fire everyone, hit the draft hard and start from square one.
    — New York Times, 26 Dec. 2021
  • Instead, Judge is back in New York, and the Giants are back at square one.
    — John Shea, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 Dec. 2022
  • Now, Memphis is back to square one with Morant once again on the sidelines.
    — Sean Neumann, Peoplemag, 9 Jan. 2024
  • But trying to leapfrog over the next steps could send us back to square one, experts say.
    — Melody Schreiber, The New Republic, 17 Apr. 2020
  • In the pursuit, Pope drops the camera, damaging the tape, which brings them back to square one.
    — refinery29.com, 4 Aug. 2021
  • The Mean Green are back to square one in conference play and play their first two league games are at home.
    — Brett Vito, Denton Record-Chronicle, 29 Sep. 2020
  • The compromise pick would be to call it a sandbox, but that just takes us back to square one.
    — Gene Park, Washington Post, 19 Dec. 2019
  • One of the lenses should be a periscope telephoto camera — the square one.
    — Chris Smith, BGR, 12 July 2021
  • This loss probably won’t send the Mustangs back to square one.
    — Sam Blum, Dallas News, 28 Nov. 2020
  • The movie is telling us that this is square one: what poverty really looks like.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 23 Sep. 2021
  • But take one or both out of the team and Everton suddenly look back to square one.
    — James Nalton, Forbes, 22 Sep. 2021
  • Going back to square one may sound simple, but the tax system is rigid and rarely simple.
    — Robert W. Wood, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023
  • The point was simply to return everything to square one.
    — Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 12 Oct. 2017
  • Successful court challenges can send a project back to square one.
    — Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2022
  • The game is starting from square one; with many of the old problems wearing a different skin.
    — Steven Strom, Ars Technica, 12 Dec. 2017
  • Remove and eat them, and the plants will then go back to square one and produce more flowers and hence more pods to harvest — before the frost.
    — Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage Daily News, 24 Aug. 2023
  • But those decisions were scrapped last year, sending the effort back to square one.
    — Simon Montlake, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 July 2023
  • Little attention has been given to those who fail and get kicked back to square one.
    — Lillian Perlmutter, The New Republic, 13 Sep. 2023
  • But when we’re not afforded this type of recognition, so many of them have to start back at square one.
    — The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Feb. 2023
  • Lexus chose to trim its sleek two-plus-two from the fabric of square one rather than snipping at the fine quilting of its chunkier four doors.
    — Larry Griffin, Car and Driver, 26 June 2020
  • That deal sits at square one, the same tough starting point other presidents faced.
    — Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 18 July 2018
  • Going back to square one to cater for Messi could be disruptive.
    — Tom Sanderson, Forbes, 14 Mar. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'square one.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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