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Catch-22
(redirected from catch-22s)

    Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.06 sec.

A paradoxical situation that has no happy ending. A popular movie with Alan Arkin in 1970, Catch-22 came from Joseph Heller's 1961 comical, yet gruesome, best-selling book about pilots in a fictitious World War II setting. The paradox was that no sane pilot would be crazy enough to want to continue flying dangerous missions. The only way a pilot would be grounded is if he were truly crazy, but if he asked to be grounded, he was then considered sane and would not be grounded.

A Catch-22 with software would be trying to install a new version of the OS that conflicts with the current display driver. Although a new version of the display driver may be available for the new version of the OS, the current display driver does not allow the new OS to be installed. Sometimes, a Catch-22 is used synonymously with a "chicken-egg" dilemma (which comes first?), but it is more accurately a conundrum without a winning solution.

Catch-22
concerned with the frustration of red-tape mechanisms. [Am. Lit.: Catch-22]
See : Bureaucracy
Catch-22
Air Force captain’s appeal to be grounded for insanity not granted because desire to avoid combat proves sanity. [Am. Lit.: Joseph Heller Catch-22]
See : Frustration
Catch-22
pleading insanity to leave army indicates sanity. [Am. Lit.: Catch-22]
See : Irony
Catch-22
claim of insanity to be relieved of military duty proves sanity. [Am. Lit.: Joseph Heller Catch-22]
See : Paradox
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Life for women at West was a never-ending series of Catch-22s.
In the Men's House: an Inside Account of Life in the Army by One of ... by Grodzinski, Helga D. / The Canadian Army Journal
This leads to some curious Catch-22s, as in France, where takeover laws designed to streamline business combinations forbid firms to make a bid conditional on regulatory approval, while EU law forbids the combination to go ahead without it.
Monti's bum rap: economically speaking, Europe's competition czar is ... by Carney, Brian M. / The International Economy
City officials must weigh several catch-22s dangling from a developer's request to clean up the contaminated Bermite property in stages, and allow phased development of the 996-acre site.
SITE CLEANUP PROPOSAL WOULD ALLOW PHASES by Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
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