deadlock
n.n. a situation where two or more computer processes or threads are waiting for each other to finish, and none can move forward. This causes the system to stop working until the problem is fixed.
n. a state in which two or more processes or threads are blocked forever, waiting for each other to release a resource or complete an action. Often occurs in multi-threaded environments when the order of resource acquisition is not properly managed.
The system froze because of a deadlock between the two threads.
The software crashed after a deadlock occurred between the database connection and the user interface thread.
To prevent a deadlock, the operating system must ensure that processes request resources in a specific order or implement a timeout mechanism to break the stalemate.
From dead + lock.