to butt heads
13
6.3
- phrasal verb
- /bʌt hɛdz/
- Informal
:
enfrentarse con
- In meetings, my colleague and I often butt heads over the best approach to the project.
- butt heads with a manager
- butt heads with the players
- often butt heads
You know, they've, you know, they've butted heads over the years, right?
- You know, they've, you know, they've butted heads over the years, right?
- Take a listen to Alex butting heads with then Senator Barbara Boxer.
- So we were both losing, which leads to Rams butting heads, right?
- He likes to stir shit up and butt heads and all that stuff.
- And that's not the first time we've ever butted heads.
- It confuses me how Courtney is confused that we're butting heads.
- So when John Kelly became the chief of staff at the at the White House, you know, we, we butted heads pretty strongly.
- So there were times where we butted heads, we got along, we fought, we stole each other's clothes.
- And like, I couldn't like if that if that was my mom that butted heads with Alex, like we would have a come to Jesus meeting.
- Like, so we were just in Ohio for Thanksgiving and my brother, him and I were like butting heads the whole time.
- And just, but each location, like in the task force, I'm butting heads with North Korean, you know, negotiator as well.
Examples
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So Andy and I butt heads all the time because I'm as far as you can get from an Orthodox rabbi.
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Perhaps you want to butt heads with him?
Blog text (8) -
So yeah, we sometimes butt heads and you will.
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There will be places where you butt heads in a very like healthy way.
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And I know that we butt heads sometimes.
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There was a time I'd follow him anywhere... no questions asked, but all we seem to do now is butt heads.
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Yeah, him and Chancellor Davis butt heads from time to time, but it's all good though.
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You have a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and sometimes they butt heads.
Fiction book (1992) -
This supervisor and I have been butting heads the whole time I've been there.
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The friendship between the two men was a tempestuous one, as they occasionally butted heads.
Blog text (24)
Synonyms
607
1.1
To speak angrily with someone because you disagree
60
4.8
Not agreeing with someone or something
23
7.0
People argue or fight angrily with each other
18
4.4
To argue loudly about small unimportant things
11
6.9
Talk angrily to someone because of a disagreement
6
6.8
To argue loudly for a long time
5
5.1
To argue strongly with someone about something
5
6.8
Argue strongly with someone, often in public
4
7.3
Not agreeing with someone and often angry about it
2
2.8
Argue with someone and feel angry or upset afterward
To argue angrily, often for a long time or in public
Antonyms
How Intense
Surface Forms
Morphology
butt + heads
The verb 'butt' (to thrust with the head) combined with 'heads' evokes a literal image of people ramming heads, which readily maps onto the idea of clashing or disagreeing. However, the shift from a physical collision to interpersonal conflict is a metaphorical extension, so the exact argumentative sense is not fully compositional for all learners.
Etymology
Butt heads comes from an animal image: goats and rams use their heads and horns to butt into each other. So when people butt heads, they 'disagree strongly' or 'clash', like those animals hitting each other.