between the hammer and the anvil

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

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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

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