to break the deadlock
3
3.9
- phrasal verb
:
romper el estancamiento
- The Congress president will also be holding consultations with UPA constituents and allies on ways and means to break the deadlock in Parliament.
Examples
-
Bush said his strategy for breaking the deadlock on the surveillance bill will be to keep talking about why it should be passed on his terms.
Blog text (1) -
Kissinger's proposals did break the deadlock, but they did not lead to an agreement as quickly as the United States had hoped.
Academic text (2005) -
Something must be done to break the deadlock, but the US should not be the ones to do it.
Blog text (22) -
To break the deadlock, they'd agreed to throw dice.
Fiction book (2000) -
What is to be done to break the deadlock in inter-Korean relations and establish a stable peace on the Korean peninsula?
Academic text (2002) -
Determined to break the deadlock, and following the Security Council Resolution of 1948, the UN designated Sir Owen Dixon, an Australian diplomat, as a fact-finder.
Academic text (2003) -
The impasse in normalizing relations between the U.S. and North Korea over the last six decades only serves to underscore the importance of people-to-people engagement, particularly the role of American citizen diplomacy to break the deadlock.
Academic text (2016) -
On 16 April 1975, the Indian and Bangladeshi ministers in charge of flood control, Jagjivan Ram and Abdur Rab Serniabat, met in Dhaka to break the deadlock.
Academic text (1998) -
The negotiators met again in hopes to break the deadlock and reach an agreement.
-
After days of discussion, the team finally managed to break the deadlock over the project.
Synonyms
2
5.3
To discuss a problem carefully to reach a solution or agreement
Make people who disagree start to work together
How Deadlocked
3
3.9
5
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'break' (to stop or interrupt) with 'deadlock' (a situation of no progress); a learner who knows both words can infer that it means to end or resolve the deadlock. This verb + noun compositional pattern is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, so it is immediately comprehensible to learners who know the constituents.
Etymology
The idiom break the deadlock gives a clear picture: two sides are stuck, like a jammed lock that will not move. To break the deadlock is to force that lock open so things can move again, which is why the phrase means 'to end a situation where no progress can be made'.