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
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
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
See All Example Sentences for wild-goose chase
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Nick Burling, Forbes.com, 24 June 2025
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
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 29 Jun. 2025.
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