impasse

1 a point in a struggle where neither side is capable of winning or willing to give in <in their bitter custody battle, the divorcing couple are at a total impasse> Synonyms deadlock, gridlock, halt, logjam, Mexican standoff, stalemate, standoff, standstill Related Words dead end; bind, bottleneck, corner, dilemma, fix, hole, jam, morass, pickle, pinch, plight, predicament, quagmire, quandary, spot; difficulty; problem

2 a difficult, puzzling, or embarrassing situation from which there is no easy escape <the impossible impasse faced by those who opposed the war but did not want to seem disloyal to the troops> Synonyms bind, box, catch-22, corner, dilemma, fix, hole, predicament, jackpot [chiefly West], jam, mire, pickle, quagmire, rabbit hole, rattrap, spot, sticky wicket, swampRelated Words difficulty, node; hot water, soup; pinch, plight, quandary, scrape, trouble; deadlock, halt, logjam, stalemate, standstill; clutch, crisis, crossroad, emergency, exigency, juncture, strait