Meaning of damned if one does, and damned if one doesn't | Babel Free

Definitions

Adjective. [C2]

Examples

“‘The tr-ruth! You think you want the truth? What would you do with it if you got it?’ / He didn’t wait for an answer, but jumped to his feet with surprising agility, strode to the window, and turning his back to them stared out into the branches of the tree. / ‘Damned if I do,’ he growled, ‘and damned if I don’t.’ […] ‘[…] Pritchard wouldn’t stoop to it so they sent you to do the dirty work, is that it? The local Polizei are too delicate, send the SS! I should throw you out,’ he stormed. / Capricorn wondered if he were drunk, and looked at Snow. / ‘Why, I could tell you . . . .’ / Diener stopped, abruptly. The colour receded from his face. As the belligerence left, he looked older and tired. Slowly, he went back to his station at the window. / ‘Damned if I do, and damned if I don’t,’ he said again.”

““I’m scared,” Ms. Ortiz told The Communicator. “Every day I keep thinking I have a hearing in two weeks. This situation could affect my entire future. But the charges are already on record. I can’t resign now; I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t, so I have to see this thing through to the end. I know I have not done anything wrong, so I am confident that I will be cleared of any wrongdoing.””

““So now I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t,” she continued, leaning back as adrenaline slowly dissipated through her system, leaving her wiped out. “If I find out he’s guilty of murder, how is that protecting the man who just begged me to keep him safe?””

CEFR level