cross wires

English

Etymology 1

From the way two electrical wires that cross can create a short circuit.

Verb

cross wires (third-person singular simple present crosses wires, present participle crossing wires, simple past and past participle crossed wires)

1. To cause difficulty; to interact in a way that generates conflict.
   • 1949, Philip Khuri Hitti, History of the Arabs, page 68:

     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.

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

     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.

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

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

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

     Bea's sparky and tough, but crosses wires.

Etymology 2

Possibly a back formation from get one's wires crossed.

Verb

cross wires (third-person singular simple present crosses wires, present participle crossing wires, simple past and past participle crossed wires)

1. To interact in a way that causes confusion or interference.
   • 1913, The Publishers Weekly - Volume 83, page 564:

     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.

   • 1915, The Silent Partner - Volume 11, page 161:

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

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

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

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

     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.

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

     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).

Etymology 3

From the use of fine wires placed perpendicular to each other in the optical pieces of telescopes.

Alternative forms

cross-wires

Noun

cross wires pl (plural only)

1. Synonym of reticle
   • 1869, John A. Smith, A Treatise on Land Surveying in theory and practice:

     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.

   • 1875, A Manual of Surveying for India, page 68:

     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.

   • 1883, Richard Glazebrook, Physical Optics, page 93:

     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.