oil and water

Examples

• All

• You know, I had these horrible nightmares that you two would be like oil and water, hating every minute of being together.

  Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

• two things that don’t go together are oil and water.

  Enemies Among Us (2010)

• The two are like oil and water.

  Annie Hall (1977)

• We were oil and water, not compatible at all.

  Fiction book (1995)

• The old mindset and new structures are like oil and water.

  Blog text (4)

• We align on values, but we can also be like oil and water, like our marriage is not without friction.

  Rich Roll

• They should get along like oil and water.

  Academic text (2009)

• But i don't think that women and business mix any more than oil and water.

  The Toast of New York (1937)

• And one of the ways in which they function as a boundary is because of that well known adage that oil and water don't mix, right.

• They argued constantly, proving they were like oil and water.

Synonyms

I

irreconcilable

vsoil and water

11 7.7

So different that people cannot agree

says they are different without stressing absolute impossibility to agree

C

chalk and cheese

vsoil and water

• UK

1 6.3

Two people or things that are completely different from each other

uses a different phrase to express the same idea

A

as different as dog and cat

vsoil and water

• Informal

6.9

Very different from each other in important ways

focuses on outright incompatibility and not getting along

U

unreconcilable

vsoil and water

7.7

Impossible to make two people or ideas agree

means being unlike without implying formal or total impossibility

Antonyms

S

similarity

157 2.7

A likeness between things that makes them seem related

C

compatibility

29 4.0

The ability of two things to work together without problems

How Different

worlds apart

• Informal

9 4.5

oil and water

• Informal

1 4.6

to mismate

9.3

compatible

112 4.1

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology