Meaning
To quarrel, argue or come into open conflict with someone; originally, to fight a duel with swords. The image is two opponents bringing their blades together, and today the phrase covers confrontations from a sharp exchange of views to a long-running feud, nearly always without physical violence. Nearly always constructed with with - cross swords with someone. Modern use implies argument, not injury; lock horns is a synonym. The idiom sits apart from the literal crossed swords of flags and heraldry. Regional use: British and American English.
Origin
The metaphor is drawn from sword combat: duelists literally crossed blades, and heraldry still shows crossed swords for battle. The OED records the verb sword, to use or fight with swords, from before 1640 in a text by the playwrights Fletcher and Massinger - verified directly - confirming the duelling-era language the idiom grew from. None of the freely consulted dictionaries prints a firm first date for the figurative phrase: Merriam-Webster defines cross swords as engaging in a dispute but gives no date, and Ammer says only that it alludes to the ancient form of combat using swords. Verifiable figurative uses are plentiful by the mid-nineteenth century: in Dickens's Barnaby Rudge (1841), Chester remarks, 'To cross swords with such a man... would be weak indeed' - verified verbatim on Wikisource - and Bagot's Donna Diana (1902) shows the dispute sense fully settled. Claims of a specific seventeenth-century first use could not be verified.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- at swords' points
- crossed swords
- crossing swords
Usage Examples
- The two senators crossed swords over the budget for the third time this month.
- I have crossed swords with that editor before, so I braced myself for a rough review.
- Expect sparks at the panel; these two columnists love crossing swords on air.