Sophie's choice

noun

Etymology

From the title of the book Sophie's Choice (1979), by William Styron, in which a mother is forced to decide which of her children will die.

Definitions

  1. A choice where every alternative has significant negative consequences.

    • As things turned out, all the enemy missiles were destroyed in flight -- two were hit very early after launch by an airborne laser system -- and a Sophie's choice was averted."
    • We've been given a Sophie's Choice,' said Senate Minority Leader Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton. 'We can improperly care for some children vs. improperly care for other children.'

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for Sophie's choice. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA