between a rock and a hard place

Cultural  

1. Faced with two equally dangerous or difficult choices or circumstances: “Trying to please two supervisors is like being between a rock and a hard place.” This phrase dates from the early twentieth century.

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between a rock and a hard place Idioms  

1. Also,. Between two equally difficult or unacceptable choices. For example, Trying to please both my boss and his supervisor puts me between a rock and a hard place. The rock and hard place version is the newest of these synonymous phrases, dating from the early 1900s, and alludes to being caught or crushed between two rocks. The oldest is Scylla and Charybdis, which in Homer's Odyssey signified a monster on a rock (Scylla) and a fatal whirlpool (Charybdis), between which Odysseus had to sail through a narrow passage. It was used figuratively by the Roman writer Virgil and many writers since. The devil in devil and deep blue sea, according to lexicographer Charles Earle Funk, referred to a seam around a ship's hull near the waterline, which, if a sailor was trying to caulk it in heavy seas, would cause him to fall overboard. Others disagree, however, and believe the phrase simply alludes to a choice between hellfire with the devil and drowning in deep waters.

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Example Sentences

Lisa Robicheau describes her life as "stuck between a rock and a hard place".

From BBC

"You're really often put between a rock and a hard place because the fastest, cheapest, easiest way is to just rebuild a plastic-heavy, very simple structure."

From BBC

"Today's numbers may have put the Fed between a rock and a hard place," said Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

From BBC

Duane had come to a dilemma often described as being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

From Literature

The ETF is caught between a “rock and a hard place,” said Mazza.

From MarketWatch

Related Words

• crunch
• dilemma
• pickle
• predicament
• quandary