Did they burn their bridges??

Team Anna have burnt their bridges by announcing the political party

Building up your English communication skills is fun. Learn new stuff everyday and remember to practice.

The phrase we discuss in this post is to burn the bridges.

There was a brave army commander fighting a battle. One day, he learnt that a huge army of enemy has camped across the river and would be attacking them soon. He had fewer men and equipment with him. However, instead of waiting for the enemy, he ordered his troops to cross the river and then burn the bridge behind them. After the escape route was destroyed, he asked his men to attack the enemy. His soldiers knew that they could not retreat – they can either die or win. They fought with so much vigor that they defeated the numerically superior enemy.

That’s the theme of burning the bridges. You close your escape routes so that you would either win or get destroyed. Failure is not an option.

In real life, this phrase can be used to mean leaving no option to come back while embarking on something.

Let’s take some examples:

1. The spies blew up the road. They had now burnt their bridges and the only hope for their survival was the success of their mission.
2. He knew that by quitting his job, he had burnt his bridges. He would either make it big in his own business or would go bankrupt.

The sense of the phrase is that you can now go only in one direction so your effort will be that much more intense.

Some more examples:

1. His fight with the party president had burnt his bridges. Now, he would only survive if he could win the election on his own.
2. When his rich father disowned him, he knew he had burnt his bridges. However, he worked hard and within five years established himself as a big businessman.