square peg in a round hole
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun
square peg in a round hole (plural square pegs in round holes)
- (idiomatic) Something or someone that does not fit well or at all; something that will not succeed as attempted, except possibly with much force and effort, or alteration of either the peg or the hole or both beyond recognition.
- 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 54”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], OCLC 365836:
- In England and France he was the square peg in the round hole, but here the holes were any sort of shape, and no sort of peg was quite amiss.
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Translations
a poor fit
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See also
- square the circle (semantic overlap regarding a difficult problem)
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