Mexican standoffs

Noun

Mexican standoff (plural Mexican standoffs)

1. (slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.
   • “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!”1876 March 19, F. Harvey Smith, “Mexican Stand-Off”, in Sunday Mercury, New York, page 2/col. 5
   1. (slang) An inconclusive standoff, ending in mutual retreat.
   2. (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).
      • “Either way you want it,” says Babbs, grinning in the most frightening manner now, like the next step is eight karate chops to the gizzards and giblets. Suddenly it is a Mexican standoff—with both sides glaring but nobody swinging a punch yet.1968, Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →OCLC, page 255
   3. (slang) A three-way or more standoff.
      • Looks like we got us a Mexican Standoff.1994, Quentin Tarantino, David Veloz, Natural Born Killers, spoken by Mickey (Woody Harrelson)
   4. (slang) A pot that is split among the players because of a tie.
2. A near-collision between two trains; an averted cornfield meet.