| 释义 |
catch 22
noun
a self-cancelling dilemma US
Coined by Joseph Heller for his 1955 novel Catch 22, which was originally to be titled ‘Catch 18’ – until Mila 18 by Leon Uris was published.- The law was one of those Catch-22 things that put you in jail. If you complied with the federal law to buy stamps, then the state law got you for being a bookmaker. If you didn’t buy the stamps, the feds jugged you. — Mario Puzo, Inside Las Vegas, p. 291, 1977
- In other words, it was established that the [Smothers] Brothers could do what they wanted, but so could the network. In other words, grok Catch-22. — Bill Cardoso, The Maltese Sangweech, p. 237, 1984
- Catch twenty-two. Let things go like they’re going and somebody suffers. Complain to see if you can make things better and somebody suffers more. — Robert Campbell, Nibbled to Death by Ducks, p. 105, 1989
- It’s such a Catch-22 that I’m not sure it ain’t gonna kill me. — Marilyn Suriani Futterman, Dancing Naked in the Material World, p. 67, 1992
- It’s not gonna happen. This is a Catch-22. — Boogie Nights, 1997
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