butt heads

From the activities of some horned animals, which compete by butting, or hitting, their heads against one another.

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

butt heads (third-person singular simple present butts heads, present participle butting heads, simple past and past participle butted heads)

1. (idiomatic) To argue uncompromisingly.

   They always seem to butt heads when they end up talking about politics.

   • 2018 November 21, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 1101 - Rose:

     "Eventually, I just pieced it together, figuring your butting heads could probably be explained by a break up. Years of anime shipping trained me for this."

2. To struggle against something that does not give way.
   • 2021 May 29, David Hytner, “Chelsea win Champions League after Kai Havertz stuns Manchester City”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     For long spells, City butted their heads against Chelsea’s well-organised lines and the upshot was the end of their push to complete a treble.

• dustbathe, head butts, head-butts, headbutts