cross wires

present singular third person crosses wires · participle present crossing wires · participle past crossed wires · past crossed wires

1. To cause difficulty; to interact in a way that generates conflict.

   Bea's sparky and tough, but crosses wires.

   2007, The New Quarterly - Issues 104-107, page 55

   3 more examples

   After Diodorus, Josephus († ca. A.D. 95) is our chief source of information about the Nabataeans, but Josephus was interested in them only as they crossed wires with the Hebrews.

   1949, Philip Khuri Hitti, History of the Arabs, page 68

   While AFSA demands justice, we cannot tolerate or sit quietly back and watch colleagues being targeted, secretly investigated, discredited and financially abused because they crossed wires with IG staff.

   1993, United States, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs, The Integrity and Effectiveness of the Offices of Inspector General, page 16

   For many poets such a compulsion might remain unfocused, a theme that inadvertently crosses wires and brings forth occasional sparks.

   1996, Kevin Stein, Private Poets, Worldly Acts, page 73

present singular third person crosses wires · participle present crossing wires · participle past crossed wires · past crossed wires

1. To interact in a way that causes confusion or interference.

   Your sentiment crosses wires with your common sense, and you pay the penalty when the power goes off and your lights go out

   1915, The Silent Partner - Volume 11, page 161

   4 more examples

   The natural sturdy democracy of childhood brings the four together as friends, and though each pair of cousins was naturally destined to complete each other's lives, Nature crosses wires for a while and tangles the four young hearts in a web of conflicting emotions.

   1913, The Publishers Weekly - Volume 83, page 564

   Ott often crosses wires, confusing events that occur at quite distinct levels, taking such crossings and confusions as telling evidence:

   1992, David Farrell Krell, Daimon Life: Heidegger and Life-philosophy, page 158

   The lettering is small and imperfect, and the language at times difficult; reading it requires an effort that crosses wires between the communion created by shared speech, and the isolation that best suits reading comfortably and with full concentration.

   1994, Siah Armajani, Contributions Anarchistes 1962-1994, page 15

   There seems to be a contamination here in which the much debated opposition between productive and unproductive work crosses wires with the whole questions of the reserve army of labor (that is, workers currently unemployed).

   2009, Fredric Jameson, Valences of the Dialectic, page 140

1. pluralplural onlySynonym of reticle.

   The instrumental adjustment of these parts is confined to the fixing of the intersection of the cross wires in the axis of the equal cylindrical rings bearing on the Ys, or, in other words, in the line of collimation.

   1869, John A. Smith, A Treatise on Land Surveying in theory and practice

   2 more examples

   After levelling the instrument, bisect some very remote object with the cross wires of this second telescope, and clamp it firm; if the instrument is steady, the bisection will remain permanent whilst any number of angles are measured, and by examining the bisection from time to time during the operation at the place where the instrument is set up, any error arising from this cause may be detected and rectified.

   1875, A Manual of Surveying for India, page 68

   For example, in using the telescope to determine the position of a star or some distant mark, it would be adjusted until the image of the star, formed by the object, coincided with the intersection of the cross wires.

   1883, Richard Glazebrook, Physical Optics, page 93

   Synonyms: reticle