Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

cross the streams

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.06 in modern English

Syllables: cross the streams
IPA

22

Scrabble Score

15

Letters

1

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To bring together two very disparate things, or things that the speaker thinks should be kept separate.

Colloquial; Humorous

Example Sentences

"As we weave together our syndication and aggregation networks , we must remain acutely aware of each channel and where it sends or receives content to ensure that we don't cross the streams."
"Halo Diagnostics (or Dx for short) has raised a $19 million Series A to improve diagnosis of several serious illnesses by crossing the streams from multiple tests and making the improved process easily available to providers."
"You could certainly leave it to Johnson to cross the streams of this week’s two biggest news stories – lobbying and football."
"Now, a new app on the App Store will allow you to run a virtual machine for Windows, Linux, and even macOS without jailbreaking your iPhone. Talk about crossing the streams."

Etymology

Allusion to the 1984 film Ghostbusters, in which the characters are warned not let the energy streams from their proton packs cross, in order to avoid a catastrophic explosion.

Usage

Inflected Forms

crosses the streams (present, singular) crossing the streams (participle, present) crossed the streams (participle, past) crossed the streams (past)

Questions

What does cross the streams mean?: To bring together two very disparate things, or things that the speaker thinks should be kept separate.
Where does cross the streams come from?: Allusion to the 1984 film Ghostbusters, in which the characters are warned not let the energy streams from their proton packs cross, in order to avoid a catastrophic explosion.

How to pronounce cross the streams

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