stand-off n.
1. a deadlock, a stalemate.
Arts and Miseries of Gambling 128: Thus, if a man bets on the ace and deuce, and the ace comes to his side, and the deuce to the dealer’s side, it is a stand-off, and neither wins. | ||
Topeka Trib. (KS) 1 Sept. 2/1: The entire [...] corrupt horde of politicians [...] thus maintain the position of a political ‘stand-off’. | ||
Weekly Mountaineer 1 July 1/1: What you lose on the ace you win on the ten,—in other words, it is a stand-off [DA]. | ||
Fables in Sl. (1902) 103: ‘That simply makes it a Stand-Off,’ remarked Mr. Botts, who was puzzled. | ||
Mike & Psmith [ebook] ‘[H]e hasn’t enough evidence to start in on you with? You're all right. The thing’s a stand-off’. | ||
USA Confidential 175: The new solon jumped in with a request for his own. That made it a stand-off and nothing developed. | ||
Joint (1972) 183: Perhaps you could be sardonic together, a sort of a Mexican standoff. I’ll be the ignorant bystander. | letter 25 June in||
Fields of Fire (1980) 216: He had somehow caused the standoff with his waffling. | ||
It (1987) 965: ‘It’s a standoff,’ Ben said. ‘They can’t get down and we can’t get up.’. | ||
Candy 40: He was suspicious, but it was a stand-off. | ||
Crumple Zone 15: It’s a graffitti stand-off between Stanky Fly, Honk Fonk and some lone Nubian activist. | ||
D. Telegraph (Sydney) 23 Apr. 🌐 Heavily armed police surround a Northbridge house as a tense stand-off with an armed gunman unfolds. | ||
I Am Already Dead 252: [B]eing identified, leading to a stand-off, a siege, his arrest. |
2. (US) an extension of credit, a postponement of payment.
In the Carquinez Woods (1911) 28: You’d better make it a standoff for twenty-four hours [DA]. | ||
Typographical Journal IX 236: Everybody has a ‘standoff’ at the corner [DA]. | ||
Rolling Stones (1913) 29: I’ve negotiated a stand-off at a delicatessen hut downtown. | ‘A Ruler of Men’ in
3. aloofness.
Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War 143: A kind of ‘stand-off’ between the army and the navy [...] prevented them from working in harmony [DA]. | ||
Yellowstone Nights 164: I don’t take any high-an’-mighty stand-off from a lunkhead that’s stole my melons [DA]. |
4. a rejection, e.g. of a proposed date.
Popular Detective Apr. 🌐 Aw, nerts! And here I give Willie a standoff, [...] He was better than no boy friend. | ‘No Place Like Homicide’ in