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Reader question: Please explain this headline – Gates unafraid to lock horns with top generals (USAToday.com, April 5, 2010) – and particularly “lock horns”. My comments: It means to say that Gates, Robert Gates the US Defense Secretary, is not afraid to get into a fight with the military’s top officers. Verbally, of course, not one involving fists. Or horns for that matter – they don’t have them to begin with anyway. Horns, you see, are the hardened, pointed, hook-like and bone-like growths on the head of cows, deer, goats and other grass eating animals. The horns of these herbivores are used as weapons in fighting over mating rights or self-defense because they don’t have the sharp teeth of a carnivore, the meat eater such as a tiger or a lion. Deprived of their teeth, they use their head instead. Gates and the army generals use their head, too, in argument, but that’s just a metaphor, an entirely different matter. Herbivores, you see, are literally banging their heads against each other in their fight, and that’s when they “lock horns” with each other. If you’ve ever observed two goats fighting each other, you’ll be able to understand perfectly what “locking horns” is all about. If one animal is significantly larger in size and bigger in strength, the fight may be over in an instant, with the loser running off tucking its tail between its trembling legs. However, when two goats are equal in strength, the fight can be long and bloody, and their horns can get tangled – “locked” into one another – for minutes at a time as each tries to push the other off. And as they’re similar in strength, each is able to stand their ground... | 
