(idiomatic) To create a predicament or problem for oneself; to do something that leaves one with no good alternatives or solutions.
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The Coens [Coen brothers] write their screenplays in a manner as unorthodox as the films that result from them. […] They paint themselves into a corner, plotwise, then perform whatever literary gymnastics are necessary in order to paint themselves out.
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2001, Carolyn R. Russell, “Introduction”, in The Films of Joel and Ethan Coen, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, pages 3–4:
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[Giuliana] Tedeschi thus rejects the mythicization of the Holocaust, in her book and in others'. By claiming a separate, privileged space for documentary writing and survivor nonfiction, she in effect paints herself into a corner, forced thereafter to deny the presence—even the abundance—of literary tropes and writerly devices in her own work.
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2007, Risa B. Sodi, “Giuliana Tedeschi: Wife, Mother, Survivor”, in Narrative & Imperative: The First Fifty Years of Italian Holocaust Writing (1944–1994), New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang Publishing, →ISBN, page 141:
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In his diary entry from 8 January 1914, Franz Kafka writes: "What have I in common with Jews? I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe" […] [T]his corner could also, tragically, describe the place where Kafka feels he should position himself, painting himself into a corner, into a dead end, where nothing but bare life stripped of all existential substance and support can subsist.
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2009, Vivian Liska, “Introduction: Uncommon Communities”, in When Kafka Says We: Uncommon Communities in German-Jewish Literature, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN:
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Executives and businesses are often painted into a corner. They unwittingly lock themselves and their companies into a rigid bureaucratic way of dealing with rules, regulations, and compliance matters.
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2011, Hillel Glazer, “The Man versus the Money”, in High Performance Operations: Leverage Compliance to Lower Costs, Increase Profits, and Gain Competitive Advantage, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: FT Press, →ISBN, pages 57–58: