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Anonymous Posted 19 years ago
Vocabulary

at loggerheads with / on bad terms with

"The country is at loggerheads with one of its neighbors."
"The man is on bad terms with his brother."

Can one use 'at loggerheads with' only for diplomatic relations between two countries?
Can one use 'on bad terms with' only for relationships between two persons?

  

Top answer

context=viewArticle&code=20061119&articleId=3910 Ahmadinejad, whose own country is at loggerheads with the international community over its nuclear programme, said that he believed talks could resolve the ...

  • context=viewArticle&code=20061119&articleId=3910 Ahmadinejad, whose own country is at loggerheads with the international community over its nuclear programme, said that he believed talks could resolve the ...
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4 Answers
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I think you can use it for countries too:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20061119&articleId=3910

Ahmadinejad, whose own country is at loggerheads with
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I think he knew it could be used with countries, but wanted to know if it could apply to individuals, and vice versa.

Two people can be at loggerheads - it means they cannot come to an agreemnt or they can't see "eye to eye" about things. I'm not surprised Jennifer left her job; she and her boss were always at loggerheads.

It would seem that "on bad terms" best applies to
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I think both terms can be used either for individuals or for countries. (Certainly countries can be "on good terms" with each other, so why not "on bad terms"?) I do think there is a difference between being "at loggerheads" and being "on bad terms" with someone that might be worth pointing out. Corrrect me if you disagree, but I think that "at loggerheads" implies that neither of the two part
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- at loggerheads adverb (or adjective) : in or into a state of strong antagonistic usually quarrelsome disagreement<at loggerheads with the people of his village -- Harold Hobson> <the story of an energetic subordinate at loggerheads with his superiors -- Times Literary Supplement> <confusions which pu

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