gridlocked

adjective

grid·​locked ˈgrid-ˌläkt 

: affected by gridlock : brought to a state in which movement or progress is stopped completely

gridlocked streets

a gridlocked legislature

The Phoenix of 1996 has terrible air, gridlocked traffic, and spreads out in so many directions that it seems to lack any sense of order.

—Timothy Egan

… the notion of an incompetent, gridlocked government is still embedded in the national consciousness.

—Andrew Sullivan

Examples of gridlocked in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Challenges remain, of course; traffic is increasingly gridlocked, the climate crisis threatens low-lying coastal areas, and the influx of foreign cash and talent is causing grumbles among local people who feel priced out of the boom. —Charlie Campbell, TIME, 21 July 2024

The business owner added that as the day winds down, streets can become gridlocked with johns in cars looking to hire a prostitute. —Emma Colton, Fox News, 9 Feb. 2024

Live traffic cameras also showed a large emergency vehicle response blocking all eastbound travel lanes near the crash site and a string of gridlocked traffic leading up to the shut-down stretch of I-40 East. —Joe Sutton, CNN, 5 Mar. 2024

That 1870 law was repealed long ago, and there’s almost no chance the current, gridlocked Congress would pass implementing legislation now. —David Lauter, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above