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burn your bridges behind you

Cultural  

  1. To eliminate any possibility of a retreat to a former position: “In his ruthless pursuit of success, Sloane offended all his coworkers and effectively burned his bridges behind him.”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Burn your bridges behind you so you can't turn back, so the only road is ahead.

From Project Gutenberg

Lock them up for another year, if you must persist in your experiment, but don't, don't burn your bridges behind you!

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.