See between the devil and the deep blue sea in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "betwixt the devil and the deep blue sea",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
},
{
"form": "the devil and the deep blue sea",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "prepositional phrase",
"head": "between the devil and the deep blue sea"
},
"expansion": "between the devil and the deep blue sea",
"name": "head"
},
{
"args": {
"head": "between the devil and the deep blue sea"
},
"expansion": "between the devil and the deep blue sea",
"name": "en-PP"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "prep_phrase",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
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],
"glosses": [
"Between undesirable alternatives."
],
"id": "en-between_the_devil_and_the_deep_blue_sea-en-prep_phrase-rMGQ0i7n",
"links": [
[
"undesirable",
"undesirable"
],
[
"alternative",
"alternative"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) Between undesirable alternatives."
],
"related": [
{
"sense": "the devil to pay and no pitch hot or ready",
"word": "devil to pay, and no pitch hot"
},
{
"sense": "the devil to pay and no pitch hot or ready",
"word": "devil to pay"
},
{
"word": "between a rock and a hard place"
},
{
"word": "Hobson's choice"
},
{
"word": "lesser of two evils"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "between a rock and a hard place"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "between Scylla and Charybdis"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "between the devil and the deep blue sea"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"UK",
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "between the hammer and the anvil"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "between two fires"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "damned if one does and damned if one doesn't"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "doomed if you do"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "doomed if you don't"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"Australia",
"UK",
"dated",
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "in a cleft stick"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"UK",
"obsolete"
],
"word": "in bad bread"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "on the horns of a dilemma"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
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"word": "between the devil and the deep blue sea"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "betwixt the devil and the deep blue sea",
"tags": [
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]
},
{
"form": "the devil and the deep blue sea",
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}
],
"head_templates": [
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"args": {
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"2": "prepositional phrase",
"head": "between the devil and the deep blue sea"
},
"expansion": "between the devil and the deep blue sea",
"name": "head"
},
{
"args": {
"head": "between the devil and the deep blue sea"
},
"expansion": "between the devil and the deep blue sea",
"name": "en-PP"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "prep_phrase",
"related": [
{
"sense": "the devil to pay and no pitch hot or ready",
"word": "devil to pay, and no pitch hot"
},
{
"sense": "the devil to pay and no pitch hot or ready",
"word": "devil to pay"
},
{
"word": "between a rock and a hard place"
},
{
"word": "Hobson's choice"
},
{
"word": "lesser of two evils"
}
],
"senses": [
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"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
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],
"glosses": [
"Between undesirable alternatives."
],
"links": [
[
"undesirable",
"undesirable"
],
[
"alternative",
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) Between undesirable alternatives."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "between a rock and a hard place"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "between Scylla and Charybdis"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "between the devil and the deep blue sea"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"UK",
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "between the hammer and the anvil"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "between two fires"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "damned if one does and damned if one doesn't"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "doomed if you do"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "doomed if you don't"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"Australia",
"UK",
"dated",
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "in a cleft stick"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"UK",
"obsolete"
],
"word": "in bad bread"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:in a dilemma",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"word": "on the horns of a dilemma"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cc/En-au-caught_between_the_devil_and_the_deep_blue_sea.ogg/En-au-caught_between_the_devil_and_the_deep_blue_sea.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/En-au-caught_between_the_devil_and_the_deep_blue_sea.ogg"
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],
"word": "between the devil and the deep blue sea"
}
Download raw JSONL data for between the devil and the deep blue sea meaning in English (2.8kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (58c391d and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.