English Reference
Idiom idiom

strain at a gnat

Meaning

to make a mountain out of a molehill

Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Examples
SIMPLE

“Don't strain at a gnat when the big problem is obvious.”

CONTEXTUAL

“You focus on tiny typos in the report while ignoring the fact that the data is completely wrong; you really strain at a gnat.”

COMPLEX

“It is frustrating to watch the committee strain at a gnat regarding minor formatting rules while the entire project budget remains dangerously unapproved.”

Origin

From the King James Version of the Bible, verse Matthew 23:24.

Anchors to
Related idioms2entries
  1. 01

    strain a point

    To make a special effort; especially, to do a degree of violence to some principle or to one's own feelings.

  2. 02

    strain at the leash

    To be very eager to do or begin something.

Last updated August 10, 2026