A Mexican STANDOFF is a situation in which two or more parties are at an impasse, with no one willing to back down. It is often used to describe a confrontation between two or more people, each of whom has a weapon and is unwilling to back down. The term comes from the idea that if all parties involved DRAW their weapons, the result will be a TIE, or DRAW. A STANDOFF can also refer to a COLLISION of crosspurposes, where two or more parties have conflicting goals and neither is willing to compromise.