between the hammer and the anvil

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

• "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."
• "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
• between the devil and the deep blue sea
• between a rock and a hard place
• between Scylla and Charybdis
• between the devil and the deep blue sea
• between the hammer and the anvil
• between two fires
• damned if one does and damned if one doesn't
• doomed if you do
• doomed if you don't
• in a cleft stick
• in bad bread
• on the horns of a dilemma