стать в тупик

• СТАНОВИТЬСЯ/СТАТЬ В ТУПИК

[VP; subj: human or collect]

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⇒ to end up in a position in which one does not know what to do, what to say, how to react etc, become confused:

- X стал в тупик{{}}≈ X was baffled (stumped, nonplussed);

- X was in a bad (difficult) position;

- X was at a loss (for what to say <do etc>);

- X didn't know what to say (do etc);

- X reached (came to, arrived at, was at) an impasse;

- [in limited contexts] X didn't know what to make of it.

     ♦ "Я хочу квартиру хорошую"... - "Гм..." - похоже, она [председатель ревизионной комиссии кооператива] растерялась. Она рассчитывала, что я буду доказывать, что хочу получить именно плохую квартиру... тогда она могла бы мне возражать. А тут стала в тупик (Войнович 3). "I want a good apartment."..."Hmm..." It looked as if she'd [the director of the cooperative's Review Committee had] lost her way. She had counted on my arguing that I wanted to get a really bad apartment...; then she could have objected. But now she was stumped (3a).

     ♦ Выслушав такой уклончивый ответ, помощник градоначальника стал в тупик (Салтыков-Щедрин 1). When he heard this evasive answer, the assistant town governor was at a loss (1a).

     ♦ "[Поляк] встретил [меня] так важно, так я и стала в тупик" (Достоевский 1). "Не [the Pole] greeted me so pompously I didn't know what to do" (1a).

     ♦ Может быть, тем бы и кончилось это странное происшествие... если бы дело не усложнилось вмешательством элемента до такой степени фантастического, что сами глуповцы - и те стали в тупик (Салтыков-Щедрин 1). Perhaps this strange episode would have ended like this...if matters had not become complicated by a circumstance so fantastic that even the Glupovites did not know what to make of it (1b).