in a cleft stick

Prepositional phrase

1. (Australia, UK, dated) In a difficult situation, unable to choose between unfavourable options; in a dilemma.
   • Ha! I see. You have got me in a cleft stick.1901–1903, [George] Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman. […], Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1903, →OCLC, Act I, page 11
   • Such a solution only puts the humanist in a cleft stick by trading the problem of malnutrition for that of over-population.1964 September 3, H. Fullerton, Letters: Survival of the wild, New Scientist, Volume 23, No. 407, page 579

   Synonyms:

   on the horns of a dilemma, 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 bad bread

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, cleft, stick.
   • Hence when a Huichol woman is about to weave or embroider, her husband catches a large serpent and holds it in a cleft stick, while the woman strokes the reptile with one hand down the whole length of its back; …1922, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, Forgotten Books, Easy Reading Series, page 31