Lock horns
- (a)Be like a bull
- (b)Argue about something
- (c)Agree with someone
- (d)Think about the horns
Correct — B, argue about something. To lock horns with someone is to get into a direct dispute or confrontation with them. The picture behind the phrase is two horned animals such as bulls or stags pushing head to head with their horns jammed together.
- (a)Be like a bull — This describes the animal rather than the meaning; the idiom is about the clash, not about resembling a bull.
- (c)Agree with someone — The reverse of the sense — locking horns is a fight, and agreement is 'seeing eye to eye'.
- (d)Think about the horns — A word-by-word reading of the phrase; an idiom carries a settled meaning that its separate words do not give.
'Lock horns' means to enter open conflict or argument with someone, usually over a particular issue.
It normally comes with two small words — you lock horns with someone over something. The image of stags or bulls with horns interlocked explains why the phrase suggests a stubborn, head-on clash rather than a mild difference of opinion.
- The usual pattern is 'lock horns with someone over something'.
- 'Cross swords' is a close synonym.
- 'See eye to eye' is the opposite — to agree.
- Choosing the literal option about bulls or horns.
- Picking the opposite sense, 'agree'.
Asked as an idioms-and-phrases item — choose the option that gives the meaning of the phrase.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'To cross swords with someone' means:
- (a)to fight a duel for sport
- (b)to quarrel or argue with them
- (c)to travel together
- (d)to make peace with them
Answer(b) to quarrel or argue with them — the phrase means to come into open dispute.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'To see eye to eye' means:
- (a)to stare at someone
- (b)to be in agreement
- (c)to be suspicious
- (d)to meet by chance
Answer(b) to be in agreement — the phrase describes two people holding the same view.