damned if I do, damned if I don't



damned if I do, damned if I don't

A situation in which one can't win. For example, If I invite Aunt Jane, Mother will be angry, and if I don't, I lose Jane's friendship-I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't . Eric Partridge suggested this idiom may have come from the emphatic I'm damned if I do, meaning "I definitely will not do something," but despite the similar wording the quite different meaning argues against this theory. [Colloquial; first half of 1900s] Also see catch-22.
See also: damned, if

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Stanislavastah-nee-SLAH-vah (Russian)Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Russian, Medieval Slavic
ÉLoÏSee-lo-EEZFrench
Meurig-Welsh
Aurobindo-Bengali, Indian, Odia
MargrÉT-Icelandic
GÜNtherGUYN-terGerman, Germanic Mythology