bark up the wrong tree

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Australia):

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Verb

bark up the wrong tree (third-person singular simple present barks up the wrong tree, present participle barking up the wrong tree, simple past and past participle barked up the wrong tree)

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.

   • 1894, Robert Barr, chapter 21, in In the Midst of Alarms:

     You're not the first man who has made such a mistake, and found he was barking up the wrong tree.

   • 1915 August–September, John Buchan, chapter 10, in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published October 1915, →OCLC:

     They all went into the house, and left me feeling a precious idiot. I had been barking up the wrong tree this time.

   • 1922, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 19, in Man Size:

     "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."

   • 2008 September 2, Ken Russell, “Let my life flash before you, in paperback”, in The Times‎^[1], London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, retrieved 1 October 2010:

     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.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

   • 2026, Mark Oliver Everett, “Lost and Barking”, in Cookie Happened, performed by Eels:

     Lost and barking up the wrong tree / Seeing things you don't really see / Fumbling around in the dark

Usage notes

• Most commonly used in the present participial form: barking up the wrong tree.

Translations

bark up the wrong tree

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 緣木求魚 / 缘木求鱼 (zh) (yuánmùqiúyú, literally “to climb a tree seeking fish”)

• Czech: plakat na špatném hrobě (literally “to weep on a wrong grave”)
• Danish: tage fejl, være på vildspor, gå galt i byen
• Finnish: haukkua väärää puuta
• French: faire fausse route (fr), se mettre le doigt dans l'œil (fr) (literally “to put one's finger into the eye”), miser sur le mauvais cheval (fr) (literally “to bet on the wrong horse”), se tromper de cible
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: auf dem Holzweg sein (de) (literally “to be on the woodway”)
• Hebrew: טעה בכתובת (ta'á bak'tóvet), טיפס על העץ הלא נכון (tipés ál ha'éts haló nakhón)
• Italian: prendere un granchio (it) (literally “to pick up a crab”)
• Lithuanian: būti neteisiam
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ta feil, bli villedet

• Polish: skupiać się na złej sprawie
• Portuguese: bater à porta errada (literally “to knock on the wrong door”), bater na porta errada
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: напада́ть на ло́жный след impf (napadátʹ na lóžnyj sled, literally “to follow a false lead”), напа́сть на ло́жный след pf (napástʹ na lóžnyj sled), не тем заниматься impf (ne tem zanimatʹsja), не в ту степь поехать impf (ne v tu stepʹ pojexatʹ) (idiomatic)
• Spanish: errar el tiro, petar a la puerta equivocado