at loggerheads

1. Engaged in a head-on dispute: “Labor and management are at loggerheads in this affair, and it may be some time before they can negotiate a settlement.”

Idioms and Phrases

Engaged in a quarrel or dispute, as in The two families were always at loggerheads, making it difficult to celebrate holidays together . This term may have come from some earlier meaning of loggerhead , referring either to a blockhead or stupid person, or to a long-handled iron poker with a bulb-shaped end that was heated in the fire and used to melt pitch. If it was the latter, it may have been alluded to as a weapon. [Late 1600s] For a synonym, see at odds .

Related Words

• aggressive
• antagonistic
• bellicose
• combative
• contentious
• hostile
• ornery
• quarrelsome