dead-enders
Refuse to quit
Dead-enders are people who persist in a hopeless cause or refuse to accept that something is over.
The term suggests stubbornness past the point of reason—those who won't surrender even when defeat is certain.
Originally military, describing forces fighting to the last, it gained political currency for loyalists clinging to failed leaders or discredited positions: A few dead-enders still insisted the policy would work.
Faithful to established authority
- hardlinersUncompromising faction members
- regimeSystem of governance
- holdoutsThose refusing to yield
- insurgentsThose fighting established authority
Rumsfeld · Baathists · diehards · bitter-enders · last-ditch · fanatics · zealots · irreconcilables
Beyond possibility of success
- pointlessLacking any purpose
- futileIncapable of producing results
- doomedDestined for destruction
- no-winLacking any favorable outcome
unwinnable · stalemate · impasse · quagmire · cul-de-sac · nowhere · stuck · trapped
Refusing to change course
- unyieldingRefusing to give way
- intractableImpossible to manage
- inflexibleUnable to bend
- immovableIncapable of being shifted
unbending · pigheaded · mulish · obdurate · tenacious · persistent · relentless · unrepentant
loyalists
Faithful to established authority
- hardlinersUncompromising faction members
- regimeSystem of governance
- holdoutsThose refusing to yield
Rumsfeld · insurgents · Baathists · diehards · bitter-enders · last-ditch · fanatics · zealots · irreconcilables · extremists
hopeless
Beyond possibility of success
no-win · unwinnable · stalemate · impasse · quagmire · cul-de-sac · nowhere · stuck · trapped · cornered
stubborn
Refusing to change course
- unyieldingRefusing to give way
- intractableImpossible to manage
- inflexibleUnable to bend
immovable · unbending · pigheaded · mulish · obdurate · tenacious · persistent · relentless · unrepentant · diehard
dead-endersdealmakers
Those who negotiate agreements
negotiators · conciliators · moderates · bridge-builders · peacemakers
dead-enderspragmatists
Those valuing practical results
compromisers · realists · moderates · deal-makers · opportunists
dead-endersearly adopters
First users of innovations
progressives · reformers · forward-thinkers · modernizers · change agents
dead, ender, end, dead-end, dead-ender, deaden, deadened, deadening, deadly