a foot in both camps
Some involvement with or support for two opposing sides. When my friends split up, I felt like I had a foot in both camps. I've worked with both teams, and I think they both have good ideas, so to be honest I have a foot in both camps. You're either our ally or our enemy—you can't have a foot in both camps!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
*foot in both camps
Fig. an interest in or to support each of two opposing groups of people. (*Typically: get ~; have ~; give someone ~.) The shop steward had been promised a promotion and so had a foot in both camps during the strike—workers and management. Mr. Smith has a foot in both camps in the parent-teacher dispute. He teaches math, but he has a son at the school.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
a foot in both camps
If someone has a foot in both camps, they support or belong to two different groups, often groups with different aims or opinions. With an Indian father and an English mother, she had a foot in both camps — or perhaps in neither. Note: You can also say that someone has a foot in each camp or one foot in each camp. Sagdeev is trying to promote a compromise because he has one foot in each camp. Note: In this expression, a camp is a place where an army has put up its tents during part of a war or battle.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012