Deadlocks

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. To reach a state where no progress is possible due to unresolved conflict or opposition ; to secure something firmly to prevent motion or opening
2. The condition in which opposing parties cannot resolve a dispute, causing a complete halt ; to fix or fasten an object so it cannot be moved or opened
3. A situation where agreement fails and activity stops because opponents refuse to yield ; the act of locking objects tightly to inhibit any movement or access

Etymology: "Deadlocks" is simply the plural of "deadlock," a noun formed in English from "dead" and "lock." The pairing is transparent: "dead" in the sense of motionless or inert, and "lock" in its old sense of a fastening that holds something fast. Put together, a deadlock is a lock that cannot be released, and the figurative sense of two opposing parties locked in a stalemate grew naturally from that picture. The "lock" element has a long ancestry. It descends from Old English "loc," a word for a fastening or bolt, and it goes back through Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic to a shared Germanic root, so the word has been part of English since its earliest recorded stages. "Dead" comes from the same Germanic stock, with a Proto-Indo-European ancestor, though its sense of stillness or lifelessness is the part that matters for the compound.

Synonyms: stalemates, impasses, gridlocks, standstills, dead ends

Antonyms: resolutions, solutions, progress, advancements, breakthroughs