Idiom
have the wolf by the ear
Meaning
To be in a dangerous situation from which one cannot disengage, but in which one cannot safely remain.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He has the wolf by the ear and cannot leave.”
“The manager has the wolf by the ear, as firing the employee will cause a strike, but keeping him is ruining the team.”
“The whistleblower realized she had the wolf by the ear; she could not stop the investigation now, but staying at the company put her career in constant danger.”
“Caught between a failing economy and the threat of civil unrest, the government finds itself with the wolf by the ear, unable to retreat or advance without risking catastrophe.”
Examples
simple
“He has the wolf by the ear and cannot leave.”
contextual
“The manager has the wolf by the ear, as firing the employee will cause a strike, but keeping him is ruining the team.”
“The whistleblower realized she had the wolf by the ear; she could not stop the investigation now, but staying at the company put her career in constant danger.”
complex
“Caught between a failing economy and the threat of civil unrest, the government finds itself with the wolf by the ear, unable to retreat or advance without risking catastrophe.”
Origin
Initially attributed to Roman Emperor Tiberius circa year 1 AD by biographer C. Suetonius Tranquillus. United States, 1820, Thomas Jefferson, writing about the institution of slavery and the Missouri Compromise: : "But, as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other." :: — Thomas Jefferson to John Holmes (discussing slavery and the Missouri question), Monticello, 22 April 1820
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated