catch–22

1 a danger or difficulty that is hidden or not easily recognized the drug lowers cholesterol, but the catch-22 is that it mainly lowers good cholesterol Synonyms booby trap, catch, catch-22, gimmick, gotcha, hitch, joker, land mine, snagRelated Words snare, trap, trip wire, web; hazard, peril, risk; bomb, bombshell, kicker, surprise (also surprize); bait, decoy, lure

2 a difficult, puzzling, or embarrassing situation from which there is no easy escape the catch-22 faced by every first-time loan applicant: how to get a loan without a credit history Synonyms bind, box, catch-22, corner, dilemma, fix, hole, impasse, 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

3 a situation in which one has to choose between two or more equally unsatisfactory choices an environmental catch-22: building wind farms results in scenic eyesores; not building wind farms results in greater pollution from fossil fuels Synonyms catch-22, double bind, quandaryRelated Words deadlock, impasse, quagmire, stalemate, standoff; knot, problem; bind, difficulty, fix, hole, jam, pickle, pinch, plight, predicament, spotNear Antonyms breeze, cinch, duck soup, snap