ˈcross-ˈpurpose
[As now used, f. cross a., cross- 4: but in early use cross appears to have been a preposition (cross or contrary to the purpose): cf. cross-bliss (cross- 10), cross-course a.]
1. Contrary or conflicting purpose; contradictoriness of intention.
| 1681 Cotton Wond. Peak 59 We altogether in confusion spoke: But all cross purpose, not a word of sence. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 305 To allow benefit of clergy, and to restrain the press, seems to me to have something of cross-purpose in it. 1797 Burke Regic. Peace iii. Wks. VIII. 340 Before men can transact any affair, they must have a common language to speak..otherwise all is cross-purpose and confusion. 1824 Scott St. Ronan's xxxi, He..makes signs, which she always takes up at cross-purpose. |
2. pl. The name of a parlour game: cf. cross-question n. c. Often fig.
| 1666 Pepys Diary 26 Dec., Then to cross purposes, mighty merry; and then to bed. 1698 Farquhar Love & Bottle iv. i, I won't pay you the kisses you won from me last night at cross-purposes. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 504 ¶1 The agreeable Pastime in Country-Halls of Cross-purposes, Questions and Commands, and the like. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 545 In the common way of playing at cross purposes, where each party has a quite different sense of the subjects and arguments handled between them. 1860 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 55 Was there ever such a game at cross-purposes as this correspondence of ours. |
3. to be at cross-purposes: (of persons) to have plans intended for the same end, but which cross and interfere with each other; to act counter from a misconception by each of the other's purpose. (Perh. derived from the game.)
| 1688 Miege Fr. Dict. s.v. Cross, Cross Purposes, contradictions. 1769 Junius Lett. xvi. 72 No man, whose understanding is not at cross-purposes with itself. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. vi. (1869) 135 Such persons..are constantly at cross-purposes with themselves and others. 1868 Rogers Pol. Econ. vi. (ed. 3) 59 Like some married people, they have been at cross purposes when they should have been at one. |