STALEMATE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Stalemate

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/stˈeɪlmˌeɪt/ Listen

Stalemate

noun

A situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible. Synonyms: dead end, deadlock, impasse, standstill.

Drawing position in chess: any of a player's possible moves would place his king in check.

verb

Subject to a stalemate.

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Etymology of 'Stalemate'

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"Stalemate" Quotes from Famous Books

... were in the old days before Mars put off his gold lace and sacrificed the picturesque. Sometimes, on the other hand, it is the similarity of conditions then and now that will strike you. For example, the passage telling how, despite apparent inactivity and home prognostications of stalemate, the confidence of the Army grew from day to day—impossible not to see the very obvious parallel there. In fine, Mr. BAILEY has given us another brisk and engaging romance, which, if it is not quite the kind ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Dec. 5, 1917 • Various

... in the latter case it is impossible to drive the King into a corner without bringing about a stalemate. The mates by a Queen or Rook are so simple that I only give an example of each for the ...

— Chess Strategy • Edward Lasker

... bound by the letter of an ambiguous treaty, occupied in a doubtful conquest, thwarted in his ambitions; in short, if not checkmated, put into a position very much like that known in the noble game of chess as stalemate! ...

— The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte - Vol. III. (of IV.) • William Milligan Sloane

... or a stalemate, as he did at Guilford Courthouse (Greensboro, North Carolina) in March 1781, Greene made Cornwallis pay such a heavy price that the British general could not afford the cost of victory. Wandering aimlessly ...

— The Road to Independence: Virginia 1763-1783 • Virginia State Dept. of Education

... going to stay behind, with part of the air fleet. You'll get aloft before dawn and shoot down any strange aircraft. They might try to stalemate us by repeating their threat, with our guns over ...

— The Fifth-Dimension Tube • William Fitzgerald Jenkins

... tradition to uphold them—nothing but the steady courage of their race: are they a match for, and more than a match for, that grim machine-made, iron-bound host that lies waiting for them along that line of Picardy hills? Because if they are not, we cannot win this war. We can only make a stalemate ...

— All In It K(1) Carries On - A Continuation of the First Hundred Thousand • John Hay Beith (AKA: Ian Hay)