English · Idiom Attested

between a rock and a hard place

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Faced with two equally undesirable alternatives.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Đứng trước hai lựa chọn không mong muốn như nhau

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

So you know we're stuck between a rock and a hard place

She was caught between a rock and a hard place here, she realised with grim humour.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Equivalents & related

Near equivalent tiến thoái lưỡng nan between a rock and a hard place; a dilemma. Tiếng Việt Near equivalent khó xử (adjective) difficult to deal with; between a rock and a hard place Tiếng Việt

Common questions

What does “between a rock and a hard place” mean?

Faced with two equally undesirable alternatives.

Is “between a rock and a hard place” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

What is the closest equivalent?

“tiến thoái lưỡng nan” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.