A difficulty; a dilemma; a condition.
1833. I’ve seed race paths in a worse fix than this.—James Hall, ‘Legends of the West,’ p. 191. (For a fuller quotation, see PRIMING.)
1833. “When a man has head religion,” he would say, “he is in a bad fix to die—cut off his head, and away goes his soul and body to the devil.”—Id., p. 43.
1834. I could not get my hands in no sort of a comfortable fix.—Vermont Free Press, Dec. 6.
1836. Tables and settees are put into a sleeping fix in the twinkling of a bedpost.—P. H. Nicklin, ‘A Pleasant Peregrination,’ p. 50 (Phila.).
1839. The Americans are never at a loss when they are in a fix.—Marryat, ‘Diary in America,’ ii. 166. (N.E.D.) (Italics in the original.)
1842. The imbecility of those who had brought the Government into its present fix.—Mr. Marshall of Kentucky in the House of Representatives, March 17: Cong. Globe, p. 330.
1847. The horrid American fix into which a man is betrayed.—De Quincey, ‘Third Paper on Sir W. Hamilton.’
1852. Draw me as you will, I’ll be delighted to be in your company in any fix [i.e., costume].—C. H. Wiley, ‘Life in the South,’ p. 126 (Phila.).
1861. According to the Independent, published at Belton, Tex., Texas and Jeff [Davis] are in a fix.—Oregon Argus, July 20.
