The Collaborative International Dictionary
cross-purpose \cross"-pur`pose\ (-p?r`p?s), n.
A counter or opposing purpose; a contrary aim; hence, that which is inconsistent or contradictory.
--Shaftesbury.-
pl. A conversational game, in which questions and answers are made so as to involve ludicrous combinations of ideas.
--Pepys.To be at cross-purposes, to misunderstand or to act counter to one another without intending it; -- said of persons.
Wiktionary
alt. 1 (context idiomatic English) A contrary or conflicting purpose or understanding, especially an unintentional or misconceived one. 2 (context dated English) A conversational game, in which questions and answers are made so as to involve ludicrous combinations of ideas. n. 1 (context idiomatic English) A contrary or conflicting purpose or understanding, especially an unintentional or misconceived one. 2 (context dated English) A conversational game, in which questions and answers are made so as to involve ludicrous combinations of ideas.
WordNet
n. a contrary aim; "at cross-purposes"
Usage examples of "cross-purpose".
Here is an instance in point: The plotters have been working a little at cross-purposes, each seeking his own advantages, and their plans are about to be put to the test when Figaro temporarily loses confidence in the honesty of Susanna.
The doctor thus works at cross-purposes to the best Tolstoian artist, who infects people with religious ideas and brings them together in unity.
But the borders erected by European colonialists were vertical, and therefore at cross-purposes with demography and topography.
That I have to be struggle, and becoming, and purpose, and cross-purpose ah, he who divineth my will, divineth well also on what crooked paths it hath to tread!
He had always been decent enough with me, but then we'd never been at cross-purposes over anything.
Something about the possibility of us being at cross-purposes at some future time.
On the other hand, it was also critical that the American cavalrymen didn't work at cross-purposes with what the Cherokee warriors were going to be doing.
They dislike each other and work at cross-purposes but betrayal, corruption, any straying from whatever common path they have chosen, these are inconceivable.
Each life is a game of chess that went to hell on the seventh move, and now the flukey play is cramped and slow, a dream of constraint and cross-purpose, with each move forced, all pieces pinned and skewered and zugzwanged.
You got a Fleet navigator on quasi-permanent loan, all right, but you consequently had to ask yourself what that individual could and would do if you came to cross-purposes, and you had to ask yourself a second time, when said individual immediately locked on to your admittedly attractive mainday chief officer-and-offspring, whether it was wholly as physical an attraction as Christian’.
You got a Fleet navigator on quasi-permanent loan, all right, but you consequently had to ask yourself what that individual could and would do if you came to cross-purposes, and you had to ask yourself a second time, when said individual immediately locked on to your admittedly attractive mainday chief officer-and-offspring, whether it was wholly as physical an attraction as Christian's young ego could assume it was.
That way we can do much together without coming to be at cross-purposes.
I hated to be at cross-purposes with Jesse, whom I admired, especially for his efforts to persuade black youngsters to stay in school and off drugs.
The Committee was an umbrella organization for groups concerned about various aspects of the environment, intended to focus and coordinate the efforts of the thousands of volunteers who were passionately committed to the cause of clean air, clean water, clean soil, and the protection of the ozone and all sorts of endangered species, but who often worked at cross-purposes.