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