Idiom
howl at the moon
Meaning
To spend considerable time and effort fruitlessly in a hopeless endeavor.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Complaining about the weather is just howling at the moon.”
“He spent years trying to change the company policy, but he was just howling at the moon.”
“The activist realized that protesting against the inevitable tide of progress was merely howling at the moon.”
Examples
simple
“Complaining about the weather is just howling at the moon.”
contextual
“He spent years trying to change the company policy, but he was just howling at the moon.”
complex
“The activist realized that protesting against the inevitable tide of progress was merely howling at the moon.”
Origin
From the stereotypical behaviour of wolves in folklore, which are depicted as raising their voices toward the lunar disk. The image has endured as a representation of futile or irrational effort, though the animal is merely communicating with its pack.
Key words
Related idioms
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