bark up the wrong tree
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]An allusion to a situation in which a hunting dog misidentifies the tree up which it has chased an animal and positions itself at the base of another tree, barking upward at the branches.
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
[edit]bark up the wrong tree (third-person singular simple present barks up the wrong tree, present participle barking up the wrong tree, simple past and past participle barked up the wrong tree)
- (idiomatic) To take the wrong approach to a situation; to follow a false lead; to attempt to solve a problem using mistaken assumptions about its true nature.
- 1894, Robert Barr, chapter 21, in In the Midst of Alarms:
- You're not the first man who has made such a mistake, and found he was barking up the wrong tree.
- 1915, John Buchan, chapter 10, in The Thirty-Nine Steps:
- They all went into the house, and left me feeling a precious idiot. I had been barking up the wrong tree this time.
- 1922, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 19, in Man Size:
- "We want West. He's a cowardly murderer—killed the man who trusted him." . . .
"Of course we may be barking up the wrong tree," the officer reflected aloud. "Maybe West isn't within five hundred miles of here."
- 2008 September 2, Ken Russell, “Let my life flash before you, in paperback”, in Times Online, UK, retrieved 1 October 2010:
- After three failed marriages I realised that I may have been barking up the wrong tree and should abandon the search for the perfect wife.
Usage notes
[edit]- Most commonly used in the present participial form: barking up the wrong tree.
Translations
[edit]bark up the wrong tree
|