Synonym request: "paint into a corner"
Could someone please let me know the synonym of "paint someone/somebody into a corner". I don't know any and have to use the idiom all the time, it will be good to know its synonyms.
I generally use this idiom to denote situations where somebody is left with limited options or a hard choice (mainly due to their own behavior/actions) as in:
By insisting on a pay rise, I seem to have painted myself into a corner. I will have to find another job if I don't get the raise.
It's comparable to "to burn one's bridges" as in
I've burnt all my bridges.
but this idiom has more of a moral aspect to it than yours. Painting oneself into a corner can be done through carelessness, while burning bridges implies will.
A good synonym for "painting oneself into a corner" is
leaving yourself no other option
When a person is painting the floor of a room, for example, and he literally paints himself into a corner (with nothing but two walls and a ceiling by which to escape), chances are he will be forced to step on wet paint to extricate himself, thus ruining his work.
Your use of the phrase metaphorically is quite apt. By insisting on a pay raise "or else" (I supply the "or else"), you have no other viable option than to quit and look for employment elsewhere if you're not given the raise.
In a different context (say, in a courtroom) a lawyer should never ask a witness a question to which she does not know the answer. If she doesn't, she might just be painting herself into a corner by eliciting unanticipated and damaging-to-her-case information from the witness. In so doing she could very well leave herself no other option but to concede the case. In other words, she'll be forced to live with the damage she's caused through her lack of planning and foresight.
Consider,
[put oneself] in a bind
Also, in a box or hole or jam or tight corner or tight spot. In a difficult, threatening, or embarrassing position; also, unable to solve a dilemma. All these colloquial terms allude to places from which one can't easily extricate oneself. The phrase using bind was first recorded in 1851; box, 1865; jam, 1914; tight spot, 1852. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms
[get oneself] up a tree
up a tree: (idiom) in a difficult situation without an easy way to escape Idiomeanings
Another phrase you might find useful as a (partial) synonym of "painted ... into a corner" is "gone out on a limb".
out on a limb In a difficult, awkward, or vulnerable position, as in I lodged a complaint about low salaries, but the people who had supported me left me out on a limb . This expression alludes to an animal climbing out on the limb of a tree and then being afraid or unable to retreat. [Late 1800s]
[Out on a Limb. (n.d.) The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. (2003, 1997). Retrieved December 13 2015 from http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/out+on+a+limb .]
If the sense is to put someone at a posture of desperate defense, the expressions bring to bay or at bay may be used. Dictionaries are surprisingly unhelpful regarding this usage, though the OOD does gloss at bay.
Shakespeare appears to use bayed as a simple transitive verb meaning (according to my Pelican Shakespeare) “brought to bay, cornered” (and corner thus as a verb is another option for you), but astonishingly that usage does not seem to be glossed even by the full OED, and in any case I would avoid it as archaic and obscure:
I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear
With hounds of Sparta. (Hippolyta, A Midsummer Night’s Dream 4.1.111–13)