Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Cross your arms for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's phrase is "cross your arms" — pronounced /krɒs jɔː ˈɑːmz/, stress on "arms".
Narrator: To cross your arms is to fold one arm over the other across your chest.
Narrator: In plain English, it's the classic closed posture — and one of the most over-interpreted gestures on earth.
Narrator: The verb cross comes from the shape — one line laid over another.
Narrator: Popular psychology calls it defensive — arms crossed means resistant, closed, unconvinced.
Narrator: Research is far less certain — people also cross their arms when cold, thinking, or simply comfortable.
Narrator: In British English, fold your arms is the more common phrasing for the same action.
Narrator: As an instruction it appears everywhere — teachers, photographers, and physiotherapists all use it.
Narrator: So remember: cross your arms is a posture, not a verdict — read the face before reading the arms.
Speaker A: Interview paranoia — I crossed my arms during a meeting and afterwards a colleague told me I'd "signalled resistance". Is that real science or office folklore?
Speaker B: Mostly folklore with a grain of truth! CROSSING YOUR ARMS is popularly read as defensive or closed, but the research is far weaker than the pop psychology suggests. People cross their arms when they're cold, thinking, comfortable, or simply have nowhere else to put them!
Speaker A: So the interpretation is unreliable?
Speaker B: In isolation, very. Body language works in CLUSTERS — arms plus face plus posture plus tone. Crossed arms with a smile and leaning in means something entirely different from crossed arms with a frown and a lean back. One gesture never carries a verdict!
Speaker A: Example sentences?
Speaker B: "He crossed his arms and waited"; "she stood with arms crossed, unconvinced"; "cross your arms for the photograph" — waiting, scepticism, and photography's favourite pose.
Speaker A: Common mistakes?
Speaker B: The British preference, first — FOLD YOUR ARMS is the more common British phrasing; cross your arms is understood everywhere but leans American. Then the confusion with CROSS YOUR FINGERS, which means hoping for luck, and CROSS YOUR HEART, which means promising. Three crossings, three completely different meanings!
Speaker A: Arms, fingers, heart — three crossings sorted! Any practical uses?
Speaker B: Plenty — photographers use it to give hands a job; teachers use it as a settling instruction; and physiotherapists use "cross your arms over your chest" for specific exercises. Outside the folklore, it's simply a useful, stable position!
Speaker A: A stable position, not a signal — reassuring! Close relatives?
Speaker B: "Fold your arms" is the British twin; "arms akimbo" is hands on hips — a different, more assertive posture; "hug yourself" is the self-comforting version; "clasp your hands" is the seated equivalent. "Cross your arms" keeps the classic, ambiguous fold!
Speaker A: I've since asked the colleague what I actually said, incidentally. He couldn't remember — only the arms.
Speaker B: Gesture remembered, argument forgotten — which tells you everything about meetings!
Speaker B: Let's use "cross your arms" in AI prompts — a signals-and-posture phrase for interpreting behaviour carefully.
Speaker A: So the phrase warns against over-reading?
Speaker B: Exactly. For analytics, you'd write:
Prompt: Do not read one signal like crossed arms — before calling a user unhappy, require at least three signals: short sessions, a support ticket, and a failed action. Three signals, then a conclusion.
Speaker B: "Three signals, then a conclusion" — the cure for every false alarm in analytics.
Speaker A: Three signals, then a conclusion — I'll use it everywhere! Apps?
Speaker B: The fitness prompt:
Prompt: Add clear posture instructions to my exercise app — cross your arms over your chest, feet flat, back straight — each as one short line with an illustration and a spoken cue. One instruction per line, no paragraphs.
Speaker A: One instruction per line — exercise clarity! Photos?
Speaker B: The guidance prompt:
Prompt: Build a posing guide for my photography site — ten poses including crossed arms, each with a photo, one tip, and when it suits a portrait. Show it, name it, explain when.
Speaker A: Show, name, explain — teaching pattern! Meetings?
Speaker B: The notes prompt:
Prompt: Keep my meeting summaries to what was said, not how people looked — decisions, actions, and owners only, with no interpretation of tone or mood. Record words, never body language.
Speaker A: One more?
Speaker B: The bias prompt:
Prompt: Review my hiring notes for body-language judgements like crossed arms or weak handshake, flag each one, and suggest a skills-based question instead. Judge the answers, not the arms.
Speaker A: Judge the answers, not the arms — hiring fairness! So the phrase demands three signals, cues the exercise, guides the pose, cleans the minutes, and de-biases the hiring.
Speaker B: Exactly — the posture-not-verdict phrase: never let one gesture decide anything.
Cross your arms — meaning in Arabic & definition More C courses GL Dictionary