mixed messages/signals

plural noun

: a showing of thoughts or feelings that are very different from each other

I don't know if he likes me; he keeps giving me mixed messages.

She's sending mixed signals about her feelings.

Examples of mixed messages/signals in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There were some mixed signals under the surface, however, that could foreshadow the labor market slowing that Powell has been looking for. —Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 7 June 2024

What about the mixed messages dancing about like a Matt Waldron knuckleball when Wrigley Field, Chase Field, Nationals Park and more have sportsbooks on-site? —Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 June 2024

The chaos leading up to Vilnius, and Erdogan’s anti-Western election rhetoric, merely represent the most recent twists in the long corkscrew of mixed signals, miscommunication, and mistrust that has characterized the U.S.-Turkish relationship over decades. —Henri J. Barkey, Foreign Affairs, 17 Aug. 2023

Valley View tests its siren on the first Thursday of each month, but on the two previous first Thursdays, stormy conditions prevented those tests from being performed, so as not to send mixed signals. —Cody Copeland, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 31 May 2024

The university didn’t publicly provide one, and the organizations received mixed messages from the administration. —Charles Homans Gabra Zackman Anna Diamond Quinton Kamara, New York Times, 29 May 2024

The controversy is the latest in a series of moves that many LGBTQ Catholics view as sending mixed messages. —Jason Derose, NPR, 28 May 2024

All in all, though, the economy is offering mixed signals. —Paolo Confino, Fortune, 28 May 2024

South Bay leaders have good reason to be concerned, starting with Wiener’s mixed messages about the purpose of the tax. —Daniel Borenstein, The Mercury News, 25 May 2024