wild-goose chase
noun
variants
or wild goose chase
: a complicated or lengthy and usually fruitless pursuit or search
These errors had two fatal consequences. The most obvious was that a number of engines and dozens of firefighters were sent on a wild-goose chase and did not get to the fire for many minutes.—
Jim Murphy
Jim MurphyExamples of wild-goose chase in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In the film, Cera plays Bjorn Lund, a Norwegian entomology tutor hired by Benicio del Toro’s crazy billionaire Zsa-zsa Korda who swiftly gets dragged into a globe-trotting wild-goose chase of a plot and just as swiftly falls for Korda’s daughter, Liesl, a nun-in-training played by Mia Threapleton.
—Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 3 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
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
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Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 3 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
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
See All Example Sentences for wild-goose chase
Cite this Entry
“Wild-goose chase.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wild-goose%20chase. Accessed 17 Jun. 2025.
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