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View definitions for cross-purposes

cross-purposes

noun as in Mexican standoff

noun as in cross purposes

noun as in conflicting purposes

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Example Sentences

The reason: activist government and unionized government often work at cross purposes.

Do you think this instinct is at cross-purposes with other aspects of your activism?

Two laws passed within months of each other seem to be at cross purposes.

And the Karzai government is untrustworthy, often working at cross purposes with American interests.

Worse, of course, is the possibility that some efforts operated at cross purposes.

They were thus entirely at cross purposes, and for some time the cause of the misunderstanding was not generally intelligible.

"I think we are at cross purposes, my excellent friend," I at length resumed.

All these cross-purposes and bitterness were mirrored in the ostentatious proceedings of the congress of Chtillon.

Our occasional hours together soon became a drab tissue of evasions and cross purposes and suppressed desires.

When we speak of men at once ignorant of each other and frustrated by each other, we say they are at cross-purposes.

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On this page you'll find 71 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to cross-purposes, such as: collision, dead heat, deadlock, even money, showdown, and standoff.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

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