at cross purposes
In conflict with or in opposition to. You will never find success if you continue to work at cross purposes with your teammates. It sounds like you two are at cross purposes right now, so take a few minutes and reach an agreement about what you hope to achieve. With another impasse halting talks, it's becoming increasingly apparent that the two countries are working at cross purposes in this negotiation.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
at cross-purposes
with opposing viewpoints; with goals that interfere with each other. We are arguing at cross-purposes. We aren't even discussing the same thing. Bill and Tom are working at cross-purposes. They'll never get the job done right.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
at cross purposes
With aims or goals that conflict or interfere with one another, as in I'm afraid the two departments are working at cross purposes. This idiom, first recorded in 1688, may have begun as a 17th-century parlor game called "cross-purposes," in which a series of subjects (or questions) were divided from their explanations (or answers) and distributed around the room. Players then created absurdities by combining a subject taken from one person with an explanation taken from another.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
at cross purposes
If two people are at cross purposes, they think they are talking about or trying to do the same thing as each other, but they are actually talking about or trying to do different things. They had been talking at cross purposes earlier, he realized. The Hungarian hadn't been offering him a share of the deal at all. Now that Council members are working together instead of at cross purposes, the chances of success look considerably brighter.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
at cross purposes
misunderstanding or having different aims from one another.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
at cross-purposes
Pursuing conflicting or contrary goals, usually unintentionally: We're working at cross-purposes.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.