> as lemmas

1550 T. Nicolls tr. Thucydides Hist. Peloponnesian War vii. xii. f. cxi^v Force constrayneth them to chose of two parties, that be nothinge woorthe, the lesser euill [Fr. le moins mauuais].

1627 R. S. tr. V. Cepari Life Gonzaga i. xxix. 144 He chose that which seemed to be lesser of two euils [L. quod è duobus minus malum est visum].

1673 Case of Inhabitants Croyden 5 The People..were enforced to give him what he demanded rather then be undone by contending with him; that being the lesser evil of the too.

1710 J. Norris Treat. Christian Prudence 381 Prudence directs us to chuse the lesser Evil rather than incur a greater.

1793 True Briton 22 Oct. In a general sense, Peace is better for a Country than War; but circumstances may arise so peculiar and urgent as to render War the lesser evil of the two.

1824 J. James Comment Collects used in Church of Eng. 137 Occasions..will sometimes occur, when our decisions must prove unsatisfactory; and when the highest human wisdom can only chuse the lesser evil.

1875 Semi-centennial Amer. Unitarian Assoc. 40 If..the alternative for man were the end and arrest of scientific progress, or the death of faith.., then I say that the arrest of science would be the lesser evil of the two.

1949 Sci. News Let. 25 June 388/1 A few patients need the drug for as long as two or three years but the physicians feel that it is the lesser of two evils, since it keeps them away from alcohol.

1990 R. Malan My Traitor's Heart (1991) ii. 415 Ms Kirkpatrick believed that tinpot rightwing dictators were often a lesser evil than socialist totalitarians.

2016 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 25 Sept. a19 It's absurd—and perilous—to portray this election, as so many are doing, as a choice of the ‘lesser of two evils’.