square peg in a round hole

Language: en

Meaning: (idiomatic)Someone or something that does notfitwell or at all in a certainsetting; amisfit; hence, someone or something that will notsucceedin anendeavour, exceptpossiblywith mucheffortandforce.Synonym:like a fish out of water[1873, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XXI, inKenelm Chillingly: His Adventures and Opinions[…], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh; London:William Blackwood and Sons,→OCLC, book II,page352:["]Now, your son's case is really your case—you see it through the medium of your likings and dislikings—and insist upon forcing asquare peg into a round hole, because in a round hole you, being a round peg, feel tight and comfortable. Now I call that irrational." / "I don't see why my son has any right to fancy himself a square peg," said the farmer, doggedly, "when his father, and his grandfather, and his great-grandfather, have been round pegs; and it is agin' nature for any creature not to take after its own kind.["]]1919,W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LIV, inThe Moon and Sixpence,[New York, N.Y.]:Grosset & Dunlap Publishers[…],→OCLC,page282:To these people, native and European, he was a queer fish, but they were used to queer fish, and they took him for granted;[…]In England and France he was thesquare peg in the round hole, but here the holes were any sort of shape, and no sort of peg was quite amiss.[1985July 9, Eugene Gressman, witness, “Statement of a Panel, including: Elliot H. Levitas, Esq., Kilpatrick & Cody, Washington, DC; Stuart E. Eizenstat, Esq., Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy, Washington, DC; Stan M. Brand, Esq., Brand & Lowell, Washington, DC; and Eugene Gressman, Professor of Constitutional Law, School of Law, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill”, inRulemaking Procedures Reform Act of 1985: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure of theCommittee on the Judiciary,United States Senate, Ninety-ninthCongress, First Session on S. 1145: A Bill to Increase the Accountability of, Policy Coordination by, and Management of Priorities by Agencies through an Improved Mechanism for Congressional Oversight of the Rules of Agencies[…](Serial J-99-38), Washington, D.C.:U.S. Government Printing Office,→OCLC,page77:It is almost as if you have guidelines for putting a square peg into a square hole, but we are trying to apply those same guidelines to put asquare peg into a round hole.][2005,Gini Graham Scott, “Dealing with Danger”, inA Survival Guide for Working with Bad Bosses: Dealing with Bullies, Idiots, Back-stabbers, and Other Managers from Hell, New York, N.Y.: AMACOM,American Management Association,→ISBN, part V (Ethical Challenges),page153:As they say, you can't fit asquare peg in a round hole. If your boss is like that round hole and you are that square peg, you aren't going to fit in unless you re-shape your edges. If you can't do that, then look for that square hole where you will fit.]

Examples:

EN: Where those swanky affairs are concerned, I'm a square peg in a round hole.
ES: Supongo que en lo que respecta a esas reuniones elegantes... no tengo ni la más remota idea.
EN: It's like a square peg in a round hole.
ES: No casamos.
EN: I suggest you gentlemen invent a way to put a square peg in a round hole. Rapidly.
ES: Encuentren el modo de meter una pieza cuadrada en un agujero redondo.
EN: Robert had started school and he was having a few problems he's a square peg in a round hole in the normal mainstream schools so we've moved him to another high school that's a community school which is much more relaxed
ES: Robert habia empezado la escuela y tenia algunos problemas En las escuelas normales es como un cuadrado en un agujero redondo asi que lo cambiamos de escuela es una escuela comunitaria mucho más relajada y como familia estamos mucho mas tranquilos queria ser policia pero pienso que va a ser dificil entrar
EN: I was a square peg in a round hole, you should pardon the metaphor.
ES: Era una estaca cuadrada en un hoyo redondo debes disculpar la metáfora.
EN: I tried to fit a square peg in a round hole, and it sunk a ship and named a baby girl "Magnus."
ES: Intentó arreglar el caso del barco con metal, y hundió el barco, y bautizó a una niña pequeña como Magnus.
ES: Reparó un casco perforado con hierro y hundió el barco, y nombró a un bebé Magnus.
EN: Jamming a square peg in a round hole.
ES: Meter una pieza cuadrada en un agujero circular.
EN: Talk about putting a square peg in a round hole.
ES: Es como meter un palo cuadrado en un agujero redondo.
EN: When you guys were coming up together, that was probably true, but now he's a square peg in a round hole.
ES: Cuando estabais juntos, probablemente era verdad, pero ahora él no encaja.
EN: I'm a square peg in a round hole.
ES: Soy una clavija cuadrada en un agujero redondo.
EN: Maybe I've too often tried to put a square peg in a round hole and wanted to make something work that wasn't meant to work.
ES: Puede que a menudo estuviera bastante perdido e intentara hacer funcionar algo que no podía ser.
EN: How does that saying go: You can't put a square peg in a round hole.
HI: लोग यह कहते हैंः आप एक बोरी में एक सिलना नहीं छिपा सकते।
EN: or if I'm trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
HI: या किसी चौराहे पे भीख का कटोरा थामे खड़ा मिलूँगा
EN: 4 +1 Don't put a square peg in a round hole
HI: 1- परफ्यूम को गीली जगह पर ना रखें
EN: Do you see yourself as the square peg in a round hole?
HI: खुद जैसा जज्बा आप किसी सिंगर में देखते हैं?

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