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.

Example Sentences

Beijing and Washington have been at loggerheads on a range of issues as well as tariffs, including US demands that China's ByteDance sell TikTok and that China speed up its export of critical minerals.

From BBC

In 2019, he was appointed the governor of West Bengal state where he was often at loggerheads with the state government, run by the Trinamool Congress party.

From BBC

Most recently, because the public thought they had two big parties that were at loggerheads and in deadlock.

From Salon

The two have been at loggerheads for months, with Trump repeatedly insisting that South Africa's Afrikaner community is facing a "genocide" - a claim amplified by his close adviser Elon Musk, the South African-born tech billionaire.

From BBC

When it came to telling Ono’s story, Sheff found himself at loggerheads over the ethics of authoring her biography.

From Salon

Related Words

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