apples and oranges
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apples and oranges
Two unlike things or people. A global tech company and a farming co-op are apples to oranges, so comparing their marketing strategies isn't exactly practical, don't you think? My mom and my mother-in-law are just apples and oranges. They should not be left alone in the same room for too long! Come on, you're a nurse and I'm an engineer—our work worlds are apples and oranges!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
apples and oranges
Fig. two entities that are not similar. (Used especially in reference to comparisons of unlike things.) You can't talk about Fred and Ted in the same breath! They're like apples and oranges. Talking about her current book and her previous bestseller is like comparing apples and oranges.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
apples and oranges
Unlike objects or persons, as in Assessing the problems of the neighborhood grocery by examining a giant supermarket is comparing apples and oranges . This metaphor for dissimilarity began as apples and oysters, which appeared in John Ray's proverb collection of 1670. It is nearly always accompanied by a warning that one cannot compare such different categories.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
apples and oranges
If you say that two things are apples and oranges, you mean that they are completely different and cannot be compared. We really can't compare the data any more, it's not the same — it's just apples and oranges. Note: You can also say that comparing two things is like comparing apples with oranges. To compare one with the other is to make the mistake we were all warned about in third grade, not to compare apples with oranges.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
apples and oranges
(of two people or things) irreconcilably or fundamentally different. North AmericanFarlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
ˌapples and ˈoranges
(American English) used to describe a situation in which two people or things are completely different from each other: He was no competition for me: it was like apples and oranges.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017