Idiom
chase one's tail
Meaning
To busily try to perform many tasks or to repeatedly revise one's plans, especially with inefficient use of one's time and limited results.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“I am just chasing my tail with all this housework.”
“You are just chasing your tail by replying to every single spam email.”
“She chases her tail every day because she does not use a calendar.”
“Without a clear plan for the project, the team spent all week chasing their tails and finished nothing.”
“I spent the entire morning chasing my tail trying to find that missing invoice before realizing I never actually printed it.”
“The store manager was chasing his tail all day because three employees called in sick during the busiest holiday sale.”
“Instead of fixing the engine, the mechanic kept chasing his tail by replacing small parts that were not even broken.”
“Despite his frantic efforts to organize the chaotic filing system, he felt as though he were merely chasing his tail, achieving no real progress by the end of the day.”
Examples
simple
“I am just chasing my tail with all this housework.”
“You are just chasing your tail by replying to every single spam email.”
“She chases her tail every day because she does not use a calendar.”
contextual
“Without a clear plan for the project, the team spent all week chasing their tails and finished nothing.”
“I spent the entire morning chasing my tail trying to find that missing invoice before realizing I never actually printed it.”
“The store manager was chasing his tail all day because three employees called in sick during the busiest holiday sale.”
“Instead of fixing the engine, the mechanic kept chasing his tail by replacing small parts that were not even broken.”
complex
“Despite his frantic efforts to organize the chaotic filing system, he felt as though he were merely chasing his tail, achieving no real progress by the end of the day.”
Origin
From obsessive behavior observed in some dogs. The figurative sense refers to the frenzied activity without any useful purpose inherent in this behavior
Key words
Related idioms
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