to do something that has a big effect and after which it is very difficult or impossible to go back to how things were before让精灵从瓶子里出来：做一个有很大影响的事情，然后很难或不可能回到以前的样子
When guns were invented, the genie was let out of the bottle.当枪被发明时，精灵被放出瓶子。
This idiom can be expressed in various different ways. Other versions include the genie is out of the bottle and opposite form put the genie back in the bottle. Many people realized the genie was out of the bottle and that free music and movie downloads were here to stay. • The world has failed to put the nuclear genie back in the bottle.