ENGLISH
REFERENCE

fall between two stools

idiom
Meaning

To fit into neither of two categories and, hence, be neglected or fail.


Origin

first recorded 14th c.

From an old proverb, "Between two stools, one falls to the ground", which dates from 1390. This, in turn, is most likely a translation of the medieval Latin proverb labitur enitens sellis herere duabus ("he falls trying to sit on two seats").

Examples
SIMPLE

This movie falls between two stools — not funny or serious enough.

CONTEXTUAL

The product was too expensive for students but too basic for professionals, so it fell between two stools.

COMPLEX

Caught between the avant-garde and the commercial, her second novel fell between two stools, pleasing neither critics nor readers.

Anchors to
Related idioms8entries
  1. 01

    beast with two backs

    Two people united in sexual intercourse in the missionary position.

  2. 02

    eat for two

    To be pregnant

  3. 03

    fall apart

    To be emotionally in crisis.

  4. 04

    fall around

    To fall over continually, especially through drunkenness, clumsiness, or incompetence.

  5. 05

    fall asleep

    To be affected by paresthesia; to go numb.

  6. 06

    fall at the last hurdle

    To fail near the end of an activity, a project, etc.

  7. 07

    fall behind

    To be late (for a regular event)

  8. 08

    fall between the cracks

    To wind up in an unexpected situation which is, inadvertently, invisible to or not handled by whatever process one had hoped to be subject to; to be overlooked.

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