at cross purposes

Idioms and Phrases

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.

Example Sentences

But this new “American Idiot” seems at cross-purposes with itself.

From Los Angeles Times

The I.M.F. said that U.S. fiscal policies were adding about a half a percentage point to the national inflation rate and raising “short-term risks to the disinflation process” — essentially saying that the government was working at cross-purposes with the Fed.

From New York Times

Israel’s vow to resume the war is at cross-purposes with Arab countries who negotiated the hostage release and want the temporary truce to evolve into a more lasting cease-fire.

From Los Angeles Times

Most Americans don’t think about how different levels of the government — local, state, federal — are at cross-purposes with each other, and that these various levels often turn the other way or even encourage vigilante violence.

From Los Angeles Times

People are at cross-purposes with each other.

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• anti
• antithetical
• averse
• disputed
• hostile
• inimical
• opposing