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Date:
1900-2000
Origin:
Catch-22 book (1961) by Joseph Heller in which such situations are described
Catch-22
noun
Catch-22
[
uncountable
]
an impossible situation that you cannot solve because you need to do one thing in order to do a second thing, but you cannot do the second thing until you have done the first
:
It's a
Catch-22 situation
- without experience you can't get a job and without a job you can't get experience.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
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