"Mexican standoff" meaning in English

See Mexican standoff in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-Mexican standoff.ogg [Australia] Forms: Mexican standoffs [plural]
Etymology: 1876 US. Three-way gun standoffs, popularized in spaghetti westerns such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966), have come to be called Mexican standoffs, though this usage appears to date to the 1990s, notably in reference to Reservoir Dogs (1992); earlier usage refers to this as a “three-way standoff” or “triangular standoff”. Head templates: {{en-noun}} Mexican standoff (plural Mexican standoffs)
  1. (slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.
    (slang) An inconclusive standoff, ending in mutual retreat.
    Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-Mexican_standoff-en-noun-Hvj~g~Pe
  2. (slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.
    (slang) A confrontation among two or more armed parties, none of which wants to attack first (fearing that the other could retaliate), but neither of which will disarm (for fear the other will attack).
    Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-Mexican_standoff-en-noun-1x91X1y0
  3. (slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.
    (slang) A three-way or more standoff.
    Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-Mexican_standoff-en-noun-zKWzHj7J
  4. (slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.
    (slang, poker) A pot that is split among the players because of a tie.
    Tags: slang Categories (topical): Poker
    Sense id: en-Mexican_standoff-en-noun-jcwL6HMJ Topics: card-games, poker
  5. (slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win. Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-Mexican_standoff-en-noun-Eyn9UuYt
  6. (rail transport) A near-collision between two trains; an averted cornfield meet. Categories (topical): Rail transportation
    Sense id: en-Mexican_standoff-en-noun-Uzy6tD8H Topics: rail-transport, railways, transport
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: circular firing squad

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for Mexican standoff meaning in English (5.2kB)

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  "etymology_text": "1876 US.\nThree-way gun standoffs, popularized in spaghetti westerns such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966), have come to be called Mexican standoffs, though this usage appears to date to the 1990s, notably in reference to Reservoir Dogs (1992); earlier usage refers to this as a “three-way standoff” or “triangular standoff”.",
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  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "41 6 38 4 4 6",
      "word": "circular firing squad"
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        "A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.",
        "An inconclusive standoff, ending in mutual retreat."
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.",
        "(slang) An inconclusive standoff, ending in mutual retreat."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.",
        "A confrontation among two or more armed parties, none of which wants to attack first (fearing that the other could retaliate), but neither of which will disarm (for fear the other will attack)."
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        "(slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.",
        "(slang) A confrontation among two or more armed parties, none of which wants to attack first (fearing that the other could retaliate), but neither of which will disarm (for fear the other will attack)."
      ],
      "tags": [
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          "ref": "1994, Quentin Tarantino, David Veloz, Natural Born Killers, spoken by Mickey (Woody Harrelson)",
          "text": "Looks like we got us a Mexican Standoff.",
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        {
          "ref": "1999, Foster Hirsch, Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-noir, page 259",
          "text": "[About Reservoir Dogs] In this scene, and in the three-way shootout, a Mexican standoff, the extreme, almost operatic violence is grazed with black comedy",
          "type": "quotation"
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        "(slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.",
        "(slang) A three-way or more standoff."
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      "tags": [
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      "glosses": [
        "A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.",
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        "(slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.",
        "(slang, poker) A pot that is split among the players because of a tie."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
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      "topics": [
        "card-games",
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      "categories": [],
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        {
          "ref": "March 19, 1876, F. Harvey Smith, “Mexican Stand-Off”, in Sunday Mercury, New York, page 2/col. 5",
          "text": "“Go-!” said he sternly then. “We will call it a stand-off, a Mexican stand-off, you lose your money, but you save your life!”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1891 September, N.Y. Sporting Times, volume 19, page 4/col. 3",
          "text": "‘Monk’ Cline, who got a Mexican stand-off from Dave Rowe has signed with Louisville.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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        "A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win."
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        "A near-collision between two trains; an averted cornfield meet."
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        "(rail transport) A near-collision between two trains; an averted cornfield meet."
      ],
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    "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"
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        "A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.",
        "An inconclusive standoff, ending in mutual retreat."
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        "(slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.",
        "(slang) An inconclusive standoff, ending in mutual retreat."
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        "slang"
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        "(slang) A confrontation among two or more armed parties, none of which wants to attack first (fearing that the other could retaliate), but neither of which will disarm (for fear the other will attack)."
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          "text": "Looks like we got us a Mexican Standoff.",
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        "(slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.",
        "(slang) A three-way or more standoff."
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        "(slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.",
        "(slang, poker) A pot that is split among the players because of a tie."
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          "text": "“Go-!” said he sternly then. “We will call it a stand-off, a Mexican stand-off, you lose your money, but you save your life!”",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "1891 September, N.Y. Sporting Times, volume 19, page 4/col. 3",
          "text": "‘Monk’ Cline, who got a Mexican stand-off from Dave Rowe has signed with Louisville.",
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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