Idiom
miss the wood for the trees
Meaning
Alternative form of cannot see the forest for the trees.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“You miss the wood for the trees by focusing only on small details.”
“He spent all day fixing minor typos in the report, missing the wood for the trees regarding the main argument.”
“By obsessing over the specific wording of the contract, the lawyers missed the wood for the trees and ignored the obvious risks to their client.”
Examples
simple
“You miss the wood for the trees by focusing only on small details.”
contextual
“He spent all day fixing minor typos in the report, missing the wood for the trees regarding the main argument.”
complex
“By obsessing over the specific wording of the contract, the lawyers missed the wood for the trees and ignored the obvious risks to their client.”
Key words
Related idioms
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