街道被自己的車鎖死
這一組就是字面本身：格子狀的街道被卡在裡面的車鎖住。
noun · B2
A traffic jam so bad that no car can move at all. It happens when vehicles fill the junctions themselves, so every line of traffic is blocked by another line, even after the light turns green.
交通癱瘓
核心畫面
Picture a city centre laid out in squares, like a grid. Cars roll forward into the junctions before there is room to leave them, and now every line of traffic is standing in another line's way. The light turns green and still nobody moves, because the way out is filled by people who are also waiting. Nothing is broken and nobody is driving slowly: the parts are simply into each other, and the jam cannot undo itself. That is the picture the word carries, and it carries the whole of it into a room full of arguing people, where each side is blocking the other and no one will back up first.
可以想成一片棋盤狀的市區街道。車子在對面還沒空位時就先開進路口，結果每一排車都擋住另一排。綠燈亮了還是沒人動得了，因…更多收起
可以想成一片棋盤狀的市區街道。車子在對面還沒空位時就先開進路口，結果每一排車都擋住另一排。綠燈亮了還是沒人動得了，因為出口被同樣在等的人塞住。沒有東西壞掉，也不是誰開得慢，只是所有零件互相咬死，而且自己解不開。gridlock 把這整個畫面帶進會議室：兩邊互相擋著，誰也不肯先退一步。From the word’s history
The word is grid plus lock. Grid is the square pattern of city streets, and lock is what the traffic does to it.
這個字由 grid（城市棋盤格狀的街道）加上 lock（鎖住）組成，字面就是「整片格子被鎖起來」，跟現在的用法完全對得上。
Wiktionary entry for gridlock, kaikki source_ref 3f6f69a190036ae4:1238801529 — 'From grid + lock.'
Two branches
事情卡住，誰也不讓
把車拿掉，留下「互相擋住、誰都退不出去」這一層，就成了人的僵局。用這個字的時候，同時說了兩件事：事情停住了，而且停住的原因是對立。
noun · B2
A situation in which nothing can move forward and nothing gets decided, usually because the people involved disagree so strongly that neither side will give way.
僵局