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View synonyms for wild-goose chase

wild-goose chase

[ wahyld-goos ]

noun

  1. a wild or absurd search for something nonexistent or unobtainable:

    a wild-goose chase looking for a building long demolished.

  2. any senseless pursuit of an object or end; a hopeless enterprise:

    Her scheme of being a movie star is a wild-goose chase.



wild-goose chase

noun

  1. an absurd or hopeless pursuit, as of something unattainable
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of wild-goose chase1

First recorded in 1585–95
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Idioms and Phrases

A futile search or pursuit, as in I think she sent us on a wild goose chase looking for their beach house . This idiom originally referred to a form of 16th-century horseracing requiring riders to follow a leader in a particular formation (presumably resembling a flock of geese in flight). Its figurative use dates from about 1600.
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Example Sentences

He considered leading me off on some wild-goose chase.

One of the cinematic highlights of the 2024 New York International Children’s Film Festival could be described, at least partly, as a wild-goose chase.

At least the Victorians were just sending their friends on a wild-goose chase to be funny, and not actively poisoning them.

At one point, he lodged hairs he found in a bus station restroom between the layers of electrical tape on a bomb’s wire connections, hoping to initiate a genetic wild-goose chase.

Capitol and twist it into a wild-goose chase driven by ludicrous allegations that the FBI was behind the whole thing.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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