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Meaning of you can't go home again | Babel Free

Phrase CEFR C2

Definitions

Past times which are fondly remembered are irrecoverably in the past and cannot be relived.

Examples

“The organizers of a surprisingly refreshing program called "Judson Dance Theater Reconstruction" know that you can't go home again. Instead, they have tried to re-create that home if ever so briefly—even if it was a home these same young organizers never knew.”

“As novelist Thomas Wolfe (1930s, not 1960s, version) declared in one of his book titles, You Can't Go Home Again—because home isn't there anymore.”

“The Americans have a phrase for it: you can't go home again. Once you leave, that is it. […] [H]is time has come and gone, as he confessed when he retired from Test cricket three years ago. And gone means gone.”

CEFR level

C2

Mastery
This word is part of the CEFR C2 vocabulary — mastery level.

See also

you can't judge a book by its cover you can't keep a good man down you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs you can't make this stuff up you can't outrun your fork