Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a deadlock, a stalemate.

1847		J.H. Green 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.
1860		Topeka Trib. (KS) 1 Sept. 2/1: The entire [...] corrupt horde of politicians [...] thus maintain the position of a political ‘stand-off’.
1876		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].
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 103: ‘That simply makes it a Stand-Off,’ remarked Mr. Botts, who was puzzled.
1909		Wodehouse 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’.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 175: The new solon jumped in with a request for his own. That made it a stand-off and nothing developed.
1962		J. Blake letter 25 June in Joint (1972) 183: Perhaps you could be sardonic together, a sort of a Mexican standoff. I’ll be the ignorant bystander.
1978		J. Webb Fields of Fire (1980) 216: He had somehow caused the standoff with his waffling.
1986		S. King It (1987) 965: ‘It’s a standoff,’ Ben said. ‘They can’t get down and we can’t get up.’.
1997		L. Davies Candy 40: He was suspicious, but it was a stand-off.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 15: It’s a graffitti stand-off between Stanky Fly, Honk Fonk and some lone Nubian activist.
2011		D. Telegraph (Sydney) 23 Apr. 🌐 Heavily armed police surround a Northbridge house as a tense stand-off with an armed gunman unfolds.
2023		D. Whish-Wilson 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.

1883		B. Harte In the Carquinez Woods (1911) 28: You’d better make it a standoff for twenty-four hours [DA].
1896		Typographical Journal IX 236: Everybody has a ‘standoff’ at the corner [DA].
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘A Ruler of Men’ in Rolling Stones (1913) 29: I’ve negotiated a stand-off at a delicatessen hut downtown.

3. aloofness.

1885		D.D. Porter 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].
1911		H. Quick 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.

1940

J. Archibald ‘No Place Like Homicide’ in Popular Detective Apr. 🌐 Aw, nerts! And here I give Willie a standoff, [...] He was better than no boy friend.