ChatterBank1 min ago
number phrases
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the meaning of "catch-22"
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Assuming you really want to know, and this isn't some silly quiz - in Joseph Heller's book of the same name, a wartime pilot has flown so many dangerous missions that everyone thinks he would be crazy to fly any more. But if he asks to be grounded, then that shows he's aware of his own danger, which means he isn't crazy, so he has to keep on flying. According to the novel, that is Catch 22. Since then the expression has been extended to any situation where one rule (or piece of logic) collides head on with another rule. For example, strictly speaking a UK citizen doesn't need a passport to re-enter the UK after a trip abroad; but the Catch 22 is that you need a passport to prove you are a UK citizen.