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]

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Example Sentences

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

From MarketWatch

But in a sense, Fincher was saddled with a no-win situation.

From Salon

When I brought up the Central Park Zoo, and he said, “They were definitely in a no-win situation,” he might have been speaking about zoos in general.

From Salon

Deanna Martinez, a Moses Lake City Council member who chairs the mainstream group, called the presidential election “personally, a no-win situation.”

From Seattle Times

That stance has increasingly left Mr. Biden in a no-win situation.

From New York Times