"Crossed wires" can describe either of these situations:
1. when people who are supposedly having a conversation with each other are actually talking about completely different things
2. when a dialogue gets out of sync because people are not listening to each other - in a written dialogue this is usually because someone has posted twice before reading a reply.
The expression derives from ye olden days of analogue telephones. Sometimes when speaking on the phone in the 60s or 70s it was possible to hear another conversation on the same line. You might also pick up the phone and find that instead of a dial tone you could hear a conversation. This situation was called "crossed wires".
Example 1:
Emma: I can't wait for the weekend
Joe: Freedom at last! Next year I'm going travelling
Emma: We're throwing a party for our graduation
Joe: I'm gonna hitchhike around Europe
Emma: Everyone is invited. Hope they all come.
Joe: London Paris and Rome here I come!
Emma: You are coming aren't you?
Joe: Wanna come with me?
Emma: Crossed wires!
Example 2:
Jack: I'm sick and tired of arguing
Anna: sorry I didn't mean to upset you. I forgot that you don't like talking about politics
Jack: and I get the feeling you're trying to upset me!
Jack: sorry crossed wires
41๐ 6๐
A person who often becomes excited and aggressive over trivial things. Specific stimuli especially invokes excitement from one who is a live wire.
Watch what you say, because he's a live wire, he gets so mad over the tiniest things, especially if you tease him about his extensive shoe collection. But if you talk about something he likes, he'll become really excited and happy!
134๐ 27๐
18. Invented by Wired 96.5 Philadelphia, who play at least eighteen songs in a row without commercials, AKA a "Wired dozen"
I drank a Wired dozen BooKoos over the course of the month.
18๐ 1๐
The Xerox Telecopier, a primitive fax machine, as called by gonzo journalist Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.
...back at Rolling Stone I had to be available to read and edit copy as it came in eight- to ten-page bursts -- via the Xerox telecopier ("the mojo wire"), a primitive fax, which had a stylus that printed onto treated paper (at a rate of seven minutes per page) and smelled.
38๐ 6๐
To jerk off, masterbate
"Where is Andy?"
"Dude I think he's still in his room stripping wire"
"Man, he's always jerking off, he needs a girlfriend"
Hey, pass me that skinless wire. I need to mount these ICs on this here PCB.
13๐ 1๐
An adjective indicating an extreme degree of inebriation beyond safety, reason and/or consciousness.
Jose Contreras: Daamn, I was wired-to-the-tits drunk last night.
Bruce Lee: No shit, you were hitting on motherfucking livestock by the end of the night.
26๐ 4๐