"between the devil and the deep blue sea" meaning in English

See between the devil and the deep blue sea in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: en-au-caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.ogg
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=between the devil and the deep blue sea}} between the devil and the deep blue sea, {{en-PP|head=between the devil and the deep blue sea}} between the devil and the deep blue sea
  1. (idiomatic) Between undesirable alternatives. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: dilemma, difficult situation, betwixt the devil and the deep blue sea, the devil and the deep blue sea Related terms: between a rock and a hard place, Hobson's choice, lesser of two evils Related terms (the devil to pay and no pitch hot or ready): devil to pay, and no pitch hot, devil to pay
    Sense id: en-between_the_devil_and_the_deep_blue_sea-en-prep_phrase-rMGQ0i7n Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "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": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "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": [
        {
          "word": "dilemma"
        },
        {
          "word": "difficult situation"
        },
        {
          "word": "betwixt the devil and the deep blue sea"
        },
        {
          "word": "the devil and the deep blue sea"
        }
      ],
      "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"
    }
  ],
  "word": "between the devil and the deep blue sea"
}
{
  "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",
  "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": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Between undesirable alternatives."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "undesirable",
          "undesirable"
        ],
        [
          "alternative",
          "alternative"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Between undesirable alternatives."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "dilemma"
        },
        {
          "word": "difficult situation"
        }
      ],
      "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"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "betwixt the devil and the deep blue sea"
    },
    {
      "word": "the devil and the deep blue sea"
    }
  ],
  "word": "between the devil and the deep blue sea"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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.