Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A female sea monster who lived in a cave opposite Charybdis and devoured sailors.
  • idiom (between Scylla and Charybdis) In a position where avoidance of one danger exposes one to another danger.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A dangerous rock on the Italian side of the Strait of Messina, between Italy and Sicily, abode of a legendary monster Scylla.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A dangerous rock on the Italian coast opposite the whirpool Charybdis on the coast of Sicily, -- both personified in classical literature as ravenous monsters. The passage between them was formerly considered perilous; hence, the saying “Between Scylla and Charybdis,” signifying a great peril on either hand.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A dangerous rock on the Italian coast opposite the whirlpool Charybdis on the coast of Sicily. The passage between Scylla and Charybdis was formerly considered perilous; hence, the saying between Scylla and Charybdis signifies a great peril on either hand.
  • proper noun Greek mythology A personification of the above rock as a ravenous monster.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (Greek mythology) a sea nymph transformed into a sea monster who lived on one side of a narrow strait; drowned and devoured sailors who tried to escape Charybdis (a whirlpool) on the other side of the strait

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek Σκύλλα.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Scylla.

Examples

  • Without a word Scylla did as she was told, and in a few seconds was half kneeling, half lying on the ground.

    Southern Stories Retold from St. Nicholas Various

  • Pliny does not name the prostitute; the Restoration playwright Nathaniel Richards calls her Scylla in The Tragedy of Messalina, Empress of Rome, published in 1640, and Robert Graves in his novel Claudius the God also identified the prostitute as Scylla.

    Archive 2009-06-14 Toby O'B 2009

  • It was called Scylla and it was located walking distance from my house in a converted Bucktown cottage.

    "Top Chef" Sizzles in Chicago for Season Four 2008

  • Being a son of the wilderness, Owen Dugdale had probably never heard of the kindred terrors that used to lie in wait for the bold mariners of ancient Greece -- the rock and the whirlpool known as Scylla and

    Canoe Mates in Canada Three Boys Afloat on the Saskatchewan George Rathborne 1896

  • Gretchen, Whistler and Mahone are working together to ascertain a super secret card called Scylla that serves as the little black book for the Company.

    Give Me My Remote 2008

  • Gretchen, Whistler and Mahone are working together to ascertain a super secret card called Scylla that serves as the little black book for the Company.

    Give Me My Remote 2008

  • Michael And Whistler still try and take down the company, by breaking in to their office and stealing a memory chip called Scylla, this chip contains all the companies information and will provide much needed evidence to destroy the company.

    eTV Reviewer 2008

  • Michael And Whistler still try and take down the company, by breaking in to their office and stealing a memory chip called Scylla, this chip contains all the companies information and will provide much needed evidence to destroy the company.

    eTV Reviewer 2008

  • Gretchen, Whistler and Mahone are working together to ascertain a super secret card called Scylla that serves as the little black book for the Company.

    Give Me My Remote 2008

  • This design job is best thought of in a model-building context in which the validity of rank and the inherent tendency to abuse it are both recognized, and it is everyone's job to steer the ship of state between the six-headed monster of "Scylla" (wimpy ranklessness) and the whirlpool of "Charybdis" (self-aggrandizing rank).

    Robert Fuller: Bridging Left and Right: A Foundation for Transpartisan Politics 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.