standoff

Or stand-off

[stand-awf, -of]

noun

1. a standing off or apart; aloofness.

2. a tie or draw, as in a game.

3. something that counterbalances.

4. a prop for holding the top of a ladder away from the vertical surface against which it is leaning.

5. Electricity.,  an insulator that supports a conductor above a surface.

adjective

1. standing off or apart; aloof; reserved.

   an uncordial and standoff manner.

standoff

/ ˈstændˌɒf /

noun

1. the act or an instance of standing off or apart

2. a deadlock or stalemate

3. any situation or disposition of forces that counterbalances or neutralizes

4. rugby short for stand-off half

verb

1. (intr) to navigate a vessel so as to avoid the shore, an obstruction, etc

2. (tr) to keep or cause to keep at a distance

3. (intr) to reach a deadlock or stalemate

4. (tr) to dismiss (workers), esp temporarily

Word History and Origins

Origin of standoff¹

First recorded in 1830–40; noun, adj. use of verb phrase stand off

Example Sentences

More home-purchase agreements are being scrapped around the country, reflecting an intensifying standoff between buyers and sellers in a largely stalled housing market.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The standoff highlights the difficulty of quashing an established militia with a base of support among the population even when it has been badly beaten.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But lately, she’s been prioritizing William T. Harper’s book, “Eleven Days in Hell: The 1974 Carrasco Prison Siege at Huntsville, Texas,” which chronicles the true story of the standoff between inmates and law enforcement.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

From the Russian perspective, Kaliningrad, home to around one million people, has become something of a front line in its standoff with the West.

Read more on Barron's

Now on its 28th day, the standoff in Congress over spending is increasingly piling pain on the public sector, with the largest federal employees' union pressuring Senate Democrats to reopen the government.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• deadlock 
• impasse 
• stalemate 

When To Use

What does standoff mean?

A standoff is a situation in which no progress can be made or people are prevented from taking further action. Close synonyms are stalemate and deadlock.Such a standoff often involves two or more opposing sides that refuse to budge, back down, or change their position. A political standoff is one in which both sides refuse to come to an agreement or compromise on some policy or course of action. In the context of policing, the word standoff refers to a situation in which a person refuses to be arrested but is keeping police away by threatening violence.In movies, the tense moment when two characters are pointing weapons at each other and waiting for the other to make a move is often called a standoff.Standoff can also refer to what happens when a game or other competition ends in a tie or without a winner being declared.Much less commonly, standoff can be used as an adjective to mean aloof, reserved, or unfriendly, as in The hostess greeted us in a distant, standoff manner. The adjective standoffish is more commonly used to mean the same thing.Standoff is sometimes hyphenated, as stand-off.Example: The old enemies stared at each other in a tense standoff, both of them refusing to give an inch.