betwixt a rock and a hard place

A form of between a rock and a hard place — In a difficult and inescapable position.

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Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. alternativeidiomaticuncommonAlternative form of between a rock and a hard place

    Guess that was one time dad was betwixt a rock and a hard place.

    1959, Leonard W. Roberts, Up Cutshin and Down Greasy, Folkways of a Kentucky Mountain Family, page 82
    3 more examples

    "Mebbe so. But that leaves us betwixt a rock and a hard place - 'less you can help."

    1976, Anthony Boucher, J. Francis McComas (editors), The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, volume 51, page 70

    Consequently, we on RBM find ourselves betwixt a rock and a hard place. Or we find that during shipping our package have been crushed between what appears to be a rock and a hard place.

    1999 October 10, John Joseph Taglia, “UPS - Those bastards”, in rec.bicycles.marketplace (Usenet)

    He hired Trevor and Drake to drill deeper, feeling trapped betwixt a rock and a hard place.

    2005, Tabor Evans, Longarm 319: Longarm and the Sidekick From Hell
Cite this entry
APA

betwixt a rock and a hard place. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/betwixt%20a%20rock%20and%20a%20hard%20place

MLA

“betwixt a rock and a hard place.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/betwixt%20a%20rock%20and%20a%20hard%20place. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “betwixt a rock and a hard place,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/betwixt%20a%20rock%20and%20a%20hard%20place.

Source: betwixt a rock and a hard place on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.