Mexican standoff
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
1876 US.[1]
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”.
Pronunciation
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
Mexican standoff (plural Mexican standoffs)
- (slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.
- 1876 March 19, F. Harvey Smith, “Mexican Stand-Off”, in Sunday Mercury, New York, page 2/col. 5:
- “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!”[1]
- 1891 September, N.Y. Sporting Times, volume 19, page 4/col. 3:
- ‘Monk’ Cline, who got a Mexican stand-off from Dave Rowe has signed with Louisville.[2]
- (slang) An inconclusive standoff, ending in mutual retreat.[3]
- (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).
- (slang) A three-way or more standoff.
- 1994, Quentin Tarantino, David Veloz, Natural Born Killers, spoken by Mickey (Woody Harrelson):
- Looks like we got us a Mexican Standoff.
- 1999, Foster Hirsch, Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-noir, page 259:
- [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
- (slang, poker) A pot that is split among the players because of a tie.
- (rail transport) A near-collision between two trains; an averted cornfield meet.
Usage notes
Usage varies significantly over time and between users. In some use, not distinguished from a generic standoff. In other use, specifically between two parties, or specifically between three parties; specifically ending inconclusively, or ending violently.
See also
References
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “Mexican standoff”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
- Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang
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