wild-goose chase

noun

variants or wild goose chase

: a complicated or lengthy and usually fruitless pursuit or search

… dozens of firefighters were sent on a wild-goose chase and did not get to the fire for many minutes.

—Jim Murphy

Examples of wild-goose chase in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Traditionally, this sort of emergency would send the storage administrator off on a digital wild-goose chase, trying to understand whether that user accidentally moved or erased the folder or if someone else in the organization did so. — Nick Burling, Forbes.com, 24 June 2025

Maya sets off on a multi-continental pursuit of her father, or maybe a wild-goose chase. — Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2025

The United States is weeks away from defaulting on its debt, but the GOP is apparently more concerned with wild-goose chases. — Tori Otten, The New Republic, 10 May 2023

Thyroid disease can also cause hair loss, so the misdiagnosis can send doctors on a wild-goose chase. — Amanda Mull, The Atlantic, 12 Nov. 2021

The reported murder of a man in el Cajon valley yesterday, which sent Deputy sheriff Ward on a wild-goose chase, proved to be an hallucination of Charles Willard, the informant. — Merrie Monteagudo, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Apr. 2021

Then, following that wild-goose chase of a paragraph, Amis presents us with a footnote—and another hundred words on etymology. — Leo Robson, Harper's Magazine, 27 Oct. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1595, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for wild-goose chase

• aromatase
• oligoclase
• plagioclase
• polymerase
• streptokinase
• triphosphatase
• abase
• airspace
• apace
• backspace
• biface
• birthplace

Kids Definition

wild-goose chase

noun

: a complicated or lengthy and usually unsuccessful pursuit or search