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Synonyms

no-win situation

Idioms  

  1. A situation certain to end in failure or disappointment, as in If the in-laws visit them or they visit the in-laws, either way they see it as a no-win situation. [c. 1960]

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.

"They have got themselves into this no-win situation where Bashir's now become sort of unselectable and that's not a good thing," former England spinner Phil Tufnell told the Test Match Special podcast.

From BBC • Dec. 24, 2025

The end result: Renters get caught in something of a no-win situation.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 4, 2025

These tactics deeply annoyed Burns, and they also created a no-win situation for him.

From Slate • Sep. 5, 2025

But like every other media mogul, Mr. Zaslav is wrestling with a no-win situation: Cable television, which has long powered media conglomerates, is in terminal decline, meaning that operational costs must also go down.

From New York Times • Jun. 22, 2023

I felt like I was in a no-win situation, but the battle would have been much harder to wage if I hadn't had my closest girlfriends in the trenches with me.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

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.