bark up the wrong tree
verbEtymology An allusion to a situation in which a hunting dog misidentifies the tree up which it has chased an animal and positions itself at the base of another tree, barking upward at the branches.
1
Idiomatic To take the wrong approach to a situation; to follow a false lead; to attempt to solve a problem using mistaken assumptions about its true nature.
- The investigator spent days trying to prove the butler committed the murder, but it turns out he was barking up the wrong tree.
- You're not the first man who has made such a mistake, and found he was barking up the wrong tree.1894, Robert Barr, chapter 21, in In the Midst of Alarms:
3 more examples
- They all went into the house, and left me feeling a precious idiot. I had been barking up the wrong tree this time.1915, John Buchan, chapter 10, in The Thirty-Nine Steps:
- "We want West. He's a cowardly murderer—killed the man who trusted him." . . . "Of course we may be barking up the wrong tree," the officer reflected aloud. "Maybe West isn't within five hundred miles of here."1922, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 19, in Man Size:
- After three failed marriages I realised that I may have been barking up the wrong tree and should abandon the search for the perfect wife.2008 September 2, Ken Russell, “Let my life flash before you, in paperback”, in Times Online, UK, retrieved 01 Oct 2010: