Word.ws English Dictionary

crossed wires

crossed wires is the simple past and past participle of cross wires.

Meaning of cross wires

Verb (1)

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.
    • 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.1949, Philip Khuri Hitti, History of the Arabs, page 68

Verb (2)

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.
    • 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.1913, The Publishers Weekly - Volume 83, page 564

See all 3 meanings of cross wires

Noun

crossed wires pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) A mixup or confusion that results from getting one's wires crossed.
    • Another common pattern you might see in yourself as you use the cycle is “crossed wires.” If you were raised by parents who weren't aware of their own feelings, they probably weren't accurate in recognizing yours. As a consequence, you may not have received all the direct and indirect messages you...1997, Laurel Mellin, The Solution: 6 Winning Ways to Permanent Weight Loss, page 165
    • There are bound to be crossed wires and unforeseen problems, so prepare for them.2001, Joan Peters, Not Your Mother's Life, page 238

Questions about crossed wires

What does crossed wires mean?
Crossed wires means a mixup or confusion that results from getting one's wires crossed.
What is crossed wires the simple past and past participle of?
Crossed wires is the simple past and past participle of cross wires.
What part of speech is crossed wires?
Crossed wires is a noun.

Words near crossed wires in the dictionary

  1. crossed the t's and dotted the i's
  2. crossed the Thames
  3. crossed the Tiber
  4. crossed the wires
  5. crossed up
  6. crossed wires
  7. crossed-eyed
  8. crossedst
  9. Crossen
  10. Crossens
  11. crossentropy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crossed wires (page history and authors); cross wires (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “crossed wires.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crossed_wires. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.