MEANING
To fail to achieve either of two aims, often by trying to accommodate both.
Use it for
describing a compromise that satisfies neither side; evaluating a work aimed at incompatible audiences; showing a hybrid that misses both purposes; distinguishing balanced success from failure on both frontsShows how an attempted hybrid or compromise may satisfy neither of its intended aims. Writing functions: Failure to satisfy either aim.
Words that belong together
- fall between two stools as a compromise
On the page
The handbook falls between two stools: too technical for beginners and too brief for specialists.
Trying to be both a private diary and an official report, the account fell between two stools.
Word forms
- Base
- fall between two stools
Usage notes
Verbal idiom: fall/falls/fell/fallen/falling between two stools. Keep two and stools plural. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
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