lock horns

L

lock horns (idiom / metaphor)
/lɒk hɔːrnz/ (BrE), /lɑːk hɔːrnz/ (AmE)

Meanings

• To get into conflict or argument, especially when strongly opposing views are involved.
• To compete directly with someone in a contest, debate, or rivalry.
• To engage in a heated conflict or dispute with someone.
• (Literal) When animals, especially stags or bulls, interlock their horns in a fight.

Synonyms: clash; confront; quarrel; contend; dispute; face off.

Example Sentences

1. The two lawyers locked horns in court over the interpretation of the contract.
2. The star players will lock horns in the championship final to claim the top spot.
3. In the 1925 Scopes Trial, Darrow and Bryan locked horns over teaching evolution, clashing on science versus religion.

Origin and History

Animal Imagery Origin

The phrase “lock horns” stems from the natural behavior of horned mammals like stags, bulls, and rams, who engage in head-to-head fights, interlocking their antlers or horns while pushing against each other. This vivid image of physical struggle became a metaphor for stubborn, head-to-head human conflicts, capturing the essence of mutual, often intractable opposition.

American Emergence

The idiom first appeared in printed English in North America during the early nineteenth century. By the 1830s–1840s, it surfaced in American narratives, local histories, newspapers, and political prose, indicating an American origin in everyday and journalistic language before it spread to other English-speaking regions.

Earliest Recorded Use

One of the earliest documented uses of “lock horns” is in The History of Virgil A. Stewart (1839, compiled by H. R. Howard), published in New York. The text includes the line:

“They are enemies, and let them lock horns,”

It shows the idiom was already used figuratively in American print by 1839.

Spread in Literature and Media

Following its early appearance, “lock horns” became common in mid- and late-nineteenth-century newspapers, political commentary, and literature to describe rivalries, legal disputes, or personal conflicts. A notable 1860s poem used it to depict a domestic quarrel, cementing its place in both literary and popular language. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was widespread in British and American English across various genres.

Animal, Bull, Fight

Last update: September 23, 2025 10:03 AM