Definition: Starting from the beginning.

Definition: Starting from the beginning. Origin: According to Wikitionary, this phrase may possibly stem from childrens games, or more specifically, the board game Snakes and Ladders or hopskotch. In the game of Snakes and Ladders, for example, if a player ends up landing on a square with a snake on it, they'll be sent backwards, sometimes even as far back as square one A I will not consider changing jobs simply because I don't like to going back to square one. We did all this work and due to no fault of our own; we're back to square one.