deadlock
Americannoun
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deadlocks
plural
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a state in which progress is impossible, as in a dispute, produced by the counteraction of opposing forces; standstill; stalemate.
The union and management reached a deadlock over fringe benefits.
-
a maximum-security cell for the solitary confinement of a prisoner.
verb (used with or without object)
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deadlocks,
present (3rd person singular)
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deadlocked,
past participle, past
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deadlocking
present participle
noun
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a state of affairs in which further action between two opposing forces is impossible; stalemate
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a tie between opposite sides in a contest
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a lock having a bolt that can be opened only with a key
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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deadlocksimple
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deadlockssimple
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have deadlockedperfect
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has deadlockedperfect
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am deadlockingprogressive
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are deadlockingprogressive
-
is deadlockingprogressive
-
have been deadlockingperfect progressive
-
has been deadlockingperfect progressive
Past
-
deadlockedsimple
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had deadlockedperfect
-
was deadlockingprogressive
-
were deadlockingprogressive
-
had been deadlockingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of deadlock
Explanation
Use the noun deadlock to describe a standstill, as when two people or sides cannot move beyond a disagreement. Deadlock can also mean a game that results in an unbreakable tie or a stalemate, like when you are in a five-hour thumb-wrestling match with no winner. You can easily remember the meaning of this compound word, by thinking about its two word parts — dead + lock. The first appearance of deadlock was in The Critic, a play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan: “I have them all at a deadlock, for every one of them is afraid to let go first.”
Vocabulary lists containing deadlock
Never Let Me Go
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Vocabulary from Vladimir Putin's Speech on Crimea
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The Egypt Game
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For the opening 10 minutes, the match followed the script of last year's World Cup final between the two sides, with Canada breaking the deadlock and England immediately hitting back.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
The exchanges of fire, which began with US raids last week, come amid a deadlock in the six-month conflict.
From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026
On Friday, the judge in the Lindsay Clancy case declared a mistrial after a week of jury deadlock.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026
Brentford should have been ahead before Keane Lewis-Potter broke the deadlock after 12 minutes, the contest effectively over when Vitaly Janelt doubled their lead before half-time.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
Her statement broke the deadlock, though it was probably the last thing Minerva had intended.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
And the agency’s board itself often deadlocks on matters of campaign finance enforcement.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 18, 2023
“We have resolved most of the deadlocks during the talks with Mr. Biden and we have decided to hold more talks in line with the positive agenda.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 19, 2023
The mechanism was written into the constitution in 2008 as a tool to end deadlocks between the presidency and the legislature.
From New York Times ● May 17, 2023
One reason our discovery is exciting is because it hints at ways to work through specific political deadlocks.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 1, 2023
The most effective provision against deadlocks between the two Houses is one in the constitution of the Australian Commonwealth, by which, if they cannot agree, both are dissolved.
From The History of England - a Study in Political Evolution by A. F. (Albert Frederick) Pollard
The judge declared a mistrial after a Massachusetts jury deadlocked after seven days of deliberations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
A US judge on Wednesday sent jurors back for a final push toward a verdict in Lindsay Clancy's triple murder trial after they deadlocked for a second time, raising the prospect of a mistrial.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
At this writing, the jury does not appear close to a verdict in the Clancy case, and may well be deadlocked.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
Jurors in the trial of Lindsay Clancy are deadlocked after four days of deliberations.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
But as the year 1915 began, the opposing armies were deadlocked and trenches had become the dominating feature of the war.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
A previous trial against Atkins earlier this year ended with jurors acquitting him of first-degree murder and deadlocking on a second-degree murder charge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
The jury in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs will keep deliberating after reaching a partial verdict, but deadlocking on the most serious charge faced by the hip-hop mogul.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2025
The case ended embarrassingly for the Justice Department, with the jury deadlocking on five of the six felony counts and acquitting him on the last one.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 4, 2023
Jurors deliberated for several days, deadlocking more than once, prompting the judge to urge them to continue deliberating to reach a unanimous verdict.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 14, 2023
My mother was asleep; she was as deadlocking as a red-gray old sea-elephant stretched on the shore of a summer day.
From "Grendel" by John Gardner
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
