lesser of two evils

Idioms  

1. The somewhat less unpleasant of two poor choices. For example, I'd rather stay home and miss the picnic altogether than run into those nasty people—it's the lesser of two evils. This expression was already a proverb in ancient Greek and appeared in English by the late 1300s. Chaucer used it in Troilus and Cressida.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lesser of two evils

A wary Tinseltown reluctantly lined up behind Netflix as the lesser of two evils, only to watch Paramount keep raising its bid until the streamer walked away.

From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026

But then neither is Kate; she has a good enough moral sense to pass as a hero, but the exquisite tension of “The Diplomat” is almost always between the lesser of two evils.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025

Musk defended the move as the lesser of two evils, however, in response to a tweet from journalist Matthew Yglesias.

From Salon ● May 16, 2023

She said she had felt that was "the lesser of two evils" and that she had been scared because she did not know what he could do.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2022

How can you choose the lesser of two evils, when both evils are too great to measure?

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman