one step forward, two steps back
If you take one step forward, two steps back, you make progress but then experience events that cause you to be further behind than you were when you made the progress.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Deteriorating and making worse
- a step backwards idiom
- a turn of the screw idiom
- add
- afford
- aggravate
- backslide
- compound
- decline
- degrade
- disintegrate
- dog
- downgrade
- downhill
- exacerbate
- retrograde
- retrogress
- run yourself down
- seed
- slip
- slippery slope
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