Devil and the Deep Sea (Between the)

Between Scylla and Charybdis; between two evils, each equally hazardous. The allusion seems to be to the herd of swine and the devils called Legion.

“In the matter of passing from one part of the vessel to another when she was rolling, we were indeed between the devil and the deep sea.”—Nineteenth Century, April, 1891, p. 664.

· ·

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.