Word.ws English Dictionary

lock horns

lock horns verb: to come into conflict.

Verb

lock horns (third-person singular simple present locks horns, present participle locking horns, simple past and past participle locked horns)

  1. (idiomatic) To come into conflict.
    Synonyms:
    cross swords

Synonyms of lock horns

Forms of lock horns

third-person singular presentlocks horns
present participlelocking horns
past participlelocked horns
pastlocked horns

Questions about lock horns

What does lock horns mean?
Lock horns means to come into conflict.
What part of speech is lock horns?
Lock horns is a verb.
What is the past tense of lock horns?
The past tense of lock horns is locked horns.

Words near lock horns in the dictionary

  1. lock down
  2. lock eyes
  3. lock gate
  4. lock gates
  5. Lock Haven
  6. lock horns
  7. lock hospital
  8. lock hospitals
  9. lock in
  10. lock ins
  11. lock into

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lock horns (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-lock horns.ogg.

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