lock horns

Idioms and Phrases

Become embroiled in conflict, as in At the town meeting Kate and Steve locked horns over increasing the property tax . This expression alludes to how stags and bulls use their horns to fight one another. [First half of 1800s]

Example Sentences

So when the experts lock horns, jurors toss all of their testimony out the window.

From The Daily Beast

Judge and attorneys would frequently lock horns; and sometimes their disputes ended violently.

From Project Gutenberg

But she gives out a kind of a smile, and her hand and mine lock horns, and I sets down by the bed—mud and spurs and chaps and all.

From Project Gutenberg

Some day, popsy-wops, that soldier will drop in at our ranch and lock horns with you on the Japanese question.

From Project Gutenberg

Indications multiplied that before long the two great armies would lock horns, and prove which was the best man of the two.

From Project Gutenberg

It wouldn't do to lock horns with this self-satisfied despot; at any rate, not now.

From Project Gutenberg