stalemate

IPA: stˈeɪɫmeɪt

(chess) The state in which the player to move is not in check but has no legal moves, resulting in a draw.
(by extension) Any situation that has no obvious possible movement, but involves no personal loss.
Any kind of match in which neither contestant laid claim to victory; a draw.

(chess, transitive) To bring about a state in which the player to move is not in check but has no legal moves.
(transitive, figuratively) To bring about a stalemate, in which no advance in an argument is achieved.

Examples of "stalemate" in Sentences

The right/wrong stalemate is what keeps people in your office for way too long.
To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion.
In addition, Mr. Auque pointed to what he described as a stalemate over designing a next-generation European heavy-lift rocket.
Olney, incredulously, lists the scope of the cuts, but she replies, "We have a deal, the stalemate is done, the IOUs will be over!"
The shift in language reflects growing Western concerns about a long-term stalemate which leaves Libya effectively divided, with Col.
Most Americans think a stalemate is the likeliest outcome, something that may make an exit strategy harder to implement if that prediction comes true, adds Holland.
"What we're seeing now is perhaps not inevitable, but predictable," he said of the Libyan situation, which he described as a stalemate between Qaddafi's forces and the rebels.
Mr. Obama's stark warnings, particularly his use of the word "stalemate" to describe his efforts, weighed the dollar, said Robert Rennie, chief currency strategist at Westpac Institutional Bank.
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, citing one military official, said the document used the word "stalemate" to describe the conflict and did not adhere to U.S. military claims that the Taliban's momentum had been reversed.