between the hammer and the anvil

Contents

English

Etymology

Referring to the metal on a blacksmith's anvil, which is beaten with a hammer.

Pronunciation

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Prepositional phrase

between the hammer and the anvil

1. (principally Britain, idiomatic) With the choice between two unpleasant or distasteful options; in a predicament or quandary.
   • 1848, Jean Henri Merle d'Aubigné, The Protector, a vindication, page 250:

     Yet for a time the nation was again placed between the democracy of the levellers and the despotism of the Stuarts, — between the hammer and the anvil.

   • 1990, Judas Priest, Between The Hammer and the Anvil

     The sinner / Will testify / They'll suffer / When sacrificed on high / The burning sermons purge their evil words / Between the hammer and the anvil

Synonyms

• between a rock and a hard place
• between Scylla and Charybdis

Translations

with the choice between two unpleasant or distasteful options

• Arabic: بَيْنَ ٱلْمِطْرَقَةِ وَٱلسِّنْدَانِ‎ (bayna l-miṭraqati was-sindāni)
• Bulgarian: между чука и наковалнята (meždu čuka i nakovalnjata)
• Finnish: puun ja kuoren välissä
• French: entre le marteau et l'enclume (fr), la peste ou le choléra (fr)
• German: zwischen Hammer und Amboss
• Greek: μεταξύ σφύρας και άκμονος (el) (metaxý sfýras kai ákmonos)

• Hebrew: בֵּין הַפַּטִּישׁ וְהַסַּדָּן‎ (he) (bein hapatísh vehasadán)
• Italian: tra l'incudine e il martello
• Polish: między młotem a kowadłem (pl)
• Romanian: prins intre ciocan si nicovala
• Russian: между молотом и наковальней (ru) (meždu molotom i nakovalʹnej)
• Yiddish: צווישן האַמער און קאָוואַדלע‎ (tsvishn hamer un kovadle)