TO HAVE (or BE) AT A WHY-NOT, verb. phr. (old).—To have, stand, or be in a dilemma; to pull up suddenly, to meet with a sudden check or reverse.
d. 1612. HARINGTON [Nugæ Antiquæ (PARK), ii. 144]. This game … was like to have been lost with a WHY-NOT.
1664. BUTLER, Hudibras, II. ii. 528. And snapp’d their canons with a WHY-NOT. Ibid., ‘On Philip Nye’s Thanksgiving.’ When the church was taken with a WHY-NOT in the lurch.
1753. RICHARDSON, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, VI. 156. Now, dame Sally, I have you at a WHY-NOT, or I have had.
