at cross purposes

Idioms  

1. 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.

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Example Sentences

The official said the dialogue on subsidies would be aimed at making sure the United States and Europe are not working at cross purposes.

From Reuters

But the incident offers an example of power centers within the party working at cross purposes — in this case, Scott declining to get behind a candidate many viewed as the party’s only chance to win.

From Seattle Times

They pounce, almost too eagerly, on each of the Janacek’s lightning-quick mood changes; and in the Bartok, a piece in which the two instruments work virtually at cross purposes, they achieve an ESP-like mutual responsiveness.

From New York Times

But Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music works at cross purposes to that distancing effort.

From New York Times

The department's internal politics appeared to be utterly dysfunctional, with different groups working at cross purposes.

From Salon

Related Words

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