in a cleft stick en · ADP
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
From the metaphor of being caught in a tight position, unable to move.
Meanings
-
(Australia, UK, dated) In a difficult situation, unable to choose between unfavourable options; in a dilemma.
But considerations in drafting Sonia Gandhi apart, the Congress leadership is clearly caught in a cleft stick, with or without the services of Rajiv Gandhi′s widow.
1991, Attar Chand, Rajiv Gandhi: His Mind and Ideology, page 214:Ha! I see. You have got me in a cleft stick.
1901–1903, [George] Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman. […], Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1903, →OCLC, Act I, page 11:Such a solution only puts the humanist in a cleft stick by trading the problem of malnutrition for that of over-population.
1964 September 3, H. Fullerton, Letters: Survival of the wild, New Scientist, Volume 23, No. 407, page 579
-
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, cleft, stick.
Hence when a Huichol woman is about to weave or embroider, her husband catches a large serpent and holds it in a cleft stick, while the woman strokes the reptile with one hand down the whole length of its back; …
1922, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, Forgotten Books, Easy Reading Series, page 31
Synonyms
between the devil and the deep blue sea · damned if one does and damned if one doesn't · doomed if you do · doomed if you don't · in a cleft stick · between two fires · between a rock and a hard place · between Scylla and Charybdis · on the horns of a dilemma · between the hammer and the anvil · on the horns of a dilemma · in bad bread