piggy in the middle
to be in a difficult psychological situation
TRANSLATION
piggy in the middle = zwischen zwei Stühlen sitzen, in der Klemme stecken
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
PIGGY IN THE MIDDLE. THE one area of pharmaceutical R&D which has not yet been shaken up by new technology is the middle of the pipeline. Once a promising lead compound has been created, it has to leap a series of hurdles before it is allowed into clinical trials in people.
The Economist
Did you
know?
piggy in the middle
idiomatic noun phrase
- to be unwillingly involved in a dispute between two people or groups, or having to reconcile their opposing interests
- a game in which children throw a ball to each other and a child standing between them tries to catch it
adapted from COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary
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The children's game PIGGY IN THE MIDDLE is played worldwide. In English, also called "Keep Away", "Monkey in the Middle", or "Pickle in a Dish".
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SYNONYMS
to be between Scylla and Charybdis, the devil and the deep blue sea, a rock and a hard place, to be caught in the middle
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A CLEVER GIRL CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE
Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain.
He said he would cancel the farmer’s debt if he could marry his daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.
They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer’s field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.
The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble.
Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.
“Oh, how clumsy of me!” she said. “But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.”
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Practice OWAD in a conversation today
say something like:
“I feel like PIGGY IN THE MIDDLE when my two bosses ask me to do conflicting things.”
