Do these 3 sentences properly use the idiom "paint someone into a corner"? Or can it only be used as "paint oneself into a corner" (i.e., it wouldn't be possible to paint someone else into a corner)?
They were painted into a corner.
They were painted into a corner by the situation.
Their colleagues painted them into a corner.
The meaning I was intending to convey would be that they were put in a bind by someone else. Most dictionary entries only talk about painting oneself into a corner.
You can only paint someone else into a corner if they're holding your paint pot ;)
To paint yourself into a corner is to, by your own action, make it impossible to get out of a difficult situation, which gets worse with every further action you take… unless you walk over the floor you've just been painting.
The analogy is to a literal situation - you enter a room with a single door, turn round & start painting the floor. Each brush stroke moves you further from the doorway, until you have only the farthest corner to stand in. You could be standing there on your own, or with a team of like-minded painters, making it a collaborative action that gets you there.
To answer the question as asked - no, you cannot be painted into a corner by someone else's action, only your own.
From comments.
The thing that distinguishes this from similar phrases - hoist by one's own petard; shoot oneself in the foot etc., is that to paint yourself into a corner is not the result of a single action but multiple actions, each increasing your distance from 'the door'.
to paint oneself into a corner is the idiomatic expression.
To paint [x] into a corner is also an idiomatic expression.
BUT: They painted us into a corner. That works too.
He painted me into a corner. Just two examples.
From that we get:
They painted themselves into a corner.
He painted himself into a corner.
She painted herself into a corner.
I painted myself into a corner.
We painted ourselves into a corner.
You painted yourself into a corner.
Just follow the idiom.
Also: others can paint you into a corner:
Should Republicans actually try to paint Democrats into a corner with a rapid repeal, Reid painted a bleak picture of the ensuing damage. The Huffington Post
He was obviously more focused on creating a framework that's open to certain precedent — an album like Herbie Hancock's "Prisoner" comes to mind — but doesn't feel painted into a corner. The New York Times
Brian Bacchus, who produced "Liquid Spirit" and has also collaborated with Norah Jones and Cassandra Wilson, described this expansive work as a response to "the jazz singer having been painted into a corner in terms of the repertoire," much of which is now considerably older than many of its interpreters. The Los Angeles Times
paint into a corner from Ludwig.guru
Warning that the prime minister’s actions since the election have painted him into a corner as his self-imposed 31 December deadline for a deal grows nearer, the ex-minister said: “The question really is whether Boris prefers to wreck the economy by going along with his backbenchers and going for no deal – or the Australia option as he’s now calling it – with all the disruption to trade and price hikes and business closures and job losses that would mean, not to mention going down in history as the Tory PM who broke up the union.
Second, this book will help young women see the importance of partnering with their parents in the courtship process. I believe most young women want their parents involved in this. Of course, the culture has painted them into a corner, and they don’t quite know how to get out.
And from The Economist via Ludwig.guru, also:
And it is true that India's finance ministers have been painted into a corner by their predecessors because of the cost of financing the deficit.
The Economist has the best English in the entire world...
As others have said, the idiom of painting yourself into a corner is very much about making avoidable errors that put yourself in a difficult position. It's not something you can do to others.
But you can "back someone into a corner" or "put someone in a corner". That means to put the other person into a difficult position. It sometimes, but not always, is used to imply that the person might have to take extreme or violent measures to resolve the situation (similar to "having your back to the wall").
