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itemprop="position" content="3"></li><li itemprop="itemListElement" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ListItem"><span itemprop="name">catch-22</span><meta itemprop="position" content="4"></li></ol></nav><div id="content" class="container"><main class="blocks main-block"><article id="phrase" class="article"><h1 id="title" class="page-heading">catch-22</h1><p class="ct"><a href="https://www.theidioms.com/c/">C</a></p><p><strong>catch-22 situation</strong></p><h2 class="wp-block-heading">Meaning</h2><ul class="wp-block-list"><li>the particular situation in which one cannot win</li><li>a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of conflicting restrictions</li><li>a difficult situation</li><li>a problem from which one cannot get out</li><li>an unreasonable, irrational, or meaningless situation</li><li>a situation presenting two similarly unwanted solutions</li><li>dilemma; quandary or predicament</li></ul><h2 class="wp-block-heading">Example Sentences</h2><ol class="wp-block-list" type="1"><li>I couldn’t start my own business until I have got money, and I couldn’t get the money until I start my own business, oh my God, this is the real <strong>Catch-22 situation</strong>.</li><li>David is caught in a <strong>Catch-22 situation</strong>, unable to choose which way to go.</li><li>Working parents are in the <strong>Catch-22 situation</strong> as daycares remain shut during the Covid-19 pandemic.</li><li>The coal miners are in a <strong>Catch 22 situation</strong>; either quit working but have no income for themselves and their family or keep working until they are at death’s door.</li><li>James is presently in a <strong>catch-22 situation</strong> as he is struggling to get another work visa to find a good job somewhere else.</li><li>I’m in a very <strong>catch-22 situation</strong>. I cannot give up because I feel that I would lose it whatever little chance I have of getting work now.</li><li>In needing the experience to get a job…”How can I get any experience until I get a job that gives me experience?” – <em>Brantley Foster</em> in <em>The Secret of My Success</em>.</li></ol><h2 class="wp-block-heading">Origin</h2><p>The idiom was first coined by Joseph Heller, an American writer who used it in his novel Catch-22 published on November 10, 1961.</p><p>The novel Catch-22 describes ridiculous official restrictions on soldiers in World War II. The idiom is introduced by the character Doc Daneeka, an army psychiatrist who invokes “Catch-22” to describe why any pilot demanding mental evaluation for insanity—hoping to be found not sane enough to fly and thereby escape dangerous missions—demonstrates his sanity in creating the request and thus cannot be declared insane. This phrase also means a dilemma or difficult situation from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions.</p><div class="wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow"><blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"><p>“You mean there’s a catch?”</p><p>“Sure, there’s a catch,” Doc Daneeka replied. “<strong>Catch-22</strong>. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t crazy.”</p><p>There was only one catch and that was <strong>Catch-22</strong>, which specified that a concern for one’s safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane, he had to fly them. If he flew them, he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to, he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of <strong>Catch-22</strong> and let out a respectful whistle.</p></blockquote></div></div><div id="comments"><p class="syt"><a class="res" href="#respond">Share your opinions</a><a class="tho" href="#comments">16 Opinions</a></p><div class='info'><div id="comment-1640"><p>In this scenario, the catch-22 arises from the conflicting requirement of needing work experience to secure a job, yet being unable to acquire work experience without already having a job.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Robles María</span> <span class="date">January 6, 2024</span></p></div><div id="comment-336"><p>A person wants to go home, but forgot where they live. In order to remember they have to go home.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ KIY</span> <span class="date">August 9, 2021</span></p></div><div id="comment-335"><p>The following is an excerpt from Ralph The Heir, Anthony Trollope, 1871:<br>But then that quandary have become very a lot smaller to his sight whilst it become surmounted,—as is the character with all dilemmas; and the alternative predicament, which could were remedied had Polly regularly occurring him, again loomed very huge. And as he looked again at the matrimonial catch 22 situation which he had escaped, and at Polly status before him, comely, healthy, and sincere, such a nice armful, and so womanly withal,—so best a lady if only she changed into no longer to be judged and sentenced by means of others beside himself,—he nearly thought that that catch 22 situation became one that he may want to have borne with out complaint.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Anonymous</span> <span class="date">July 12, 2021</span></p></div><div id="comment-334"><p>But why catch 22. Why not ravioli 6 or Nike 7. Why “Catch (catch what) and 22? 22 of what?</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Carlos</span> <span class="date">May 19, 2021</span></p></div><div id="comment-333"><p>A man have to choose who will going to be alive his wife or his child coz only one could survive.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Julie Ann Pare</span> <span class="date">April 2, 2021</span></p></div><div id="comment-332"><p>The EGG before the CHICKEN, or the CHICKEN before the EGG? Classic ‘Catch 22’ situation.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Jeremiah</span> <span class="date">November 23, 2020</span></p></div><div id="comment-331"><p>I don’t get a job without having work experience but l can’t get experience until I get a job. Oh God, I am in <strong>catch 22 situation</strong>.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Shreya Jadhav</span> <span class="date">May 12, 2020</span></p></div><div id="comment-330"><p>“Catch 22” is the title of a book written by Joseph Heller. In this book there are various examples of “Catch 22 Situations”</p><p><strong>Example of a Catch 22 Scenario:</strong><br>I need money to start my own business, but I need to start my own business to get money.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ College Student</span> <span class="date">April 18, 2020</span></p></div><div id="comment-329"><p>You lost your eyeglasses, so you have to find them. To look for them, you need your eyeglasses.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Anonymous</span> <span class="date">April 11, 2020</span></p></div><div id="comment-328"><p>I have desire to married but I don’t have any job. For finding job I have needed to married, so I believe it is <strong>catch-22 situation</strong>.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Anonymous</span> <span class="date">March 30, 2020</span></p></div><div id="comment-327"><p>You can’t go to a good collage unless you pay a lot of money but to get a good job you need collage but to get a lot of money you need a good job.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Anonymous</span> <span class="date">March 22, 2019</span></p></div><div id="comment-326"><p>I couldn’t start my preparation until I get the concentration and I couldn’t start my preparation this us the real <strong>catch 22 situation</strong>.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Supreetha</span> <span class="date">November 20, 2018</span></p></div><div id="comment-325"><p>Dear God, I feel like I am in <strong>a Catch-22 situation</strong>. I want to finish this project I’ve been working on, but that needs brainpower, which I don’t have, then that needs sleep to gain brainpower, but I can’t sleep until I get that project done!</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Gavin</span> <span class="date">November 12, 2018</span></p></div><div id="comment-324"><p>“I really don’t like posting a comment online.” – simple paradox, isn’t it?</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Tyeng</span> <span class="date">March 7, 2018</span></p></div><div id="comment-323"><p>If die, if I do not die, I will still die. Is this <strong>a catch-22 situation</strong>?</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Ananth Prasad</span> <span class="date">January 10, 2018</span></p></div><div id="comment-322"><p>In big cities, if you don’t have a place to live in, you can’t get a job,you can’t get a place to live in! Thus it’s <strong>catch 22 situation</strong>.</p><p class="ink"><span class="author">‒ Sumaiya</span> <span class="date">October 12, 2017</span></p></div></div><div id="respond" class="comment-respond"><p class="cft">What's on your mind?</p><form action="https://www.theidioms.com/wp-comments-post.php" method="post" id="commentform" class="comment-form"><p><textarea placeholder="Share information, comments, or feedback." id="comment" class="cta cff" name="comment" cols="45" rows="6" aria-required="true"></textarea></p><p><input id="author" class="atf cff" placeholder="Name" name="author" type="text" value="" size="30"></p><p><input id="email" class="etf cff" placeholder="Email" name="email" type="text" value="" size="30"></p><p><input id="url" class="wtf cff" placeholder="Website" name="url" type="text" value="" size="30"></p><p class="form-submit"><input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" class="btf" value="Submit"> <input type='hidden' name='comment_post_ID' value='771' 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