drawing board
- a rectangular board on which paper is placed or mounted for drawing or drafting.
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- back to the drawing board, back to the original or an earlier stage of planning or development: Our plan didn't work out, so it's back to the drawing board.
- on the drawing board, in the planning or design stage: The shopping center is still on the drawing board.
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Origin of drawing board
First recorded in 1715–25
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
startExamples from the Web for drawing board
Historical Examples
She disappeared, and in a short time returned with her drawing-board.
A harum-scarum schoolgirlAngela Brazil
Kittrell could not speak, and he turned the drawing-board to the wall.
Americans AllVarious
The grasshopper was pinned to my drawing-board, and against a piece of newspaper.
Eye SpyWilliam Hamilton Gibson
The drawing-board is set so that the draughtsman's chair has the window on its left hand.
Heartbreak HouseGeorge Bernard Shaw
He shifted the drawing-board Rod had fixed up for him an inch or two.
Ralestone LuckAndre Norton
drawing board
- a smooth flat rectangular board on which paper, canvas, etc, is placed for making drawings
- back to the drawing board return to an earlier stage in an enterprise because a planned undertaking has failed
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Idioms and Phrases with drawing board
drawing board
see back to the drawing board.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.