bark up the wrong tree
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To pursue a mistaken or misguided line of thought or action
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
theo đuổi một hướng suy nghĩ hoặc hành động sai lầm
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: barking at the base of the incorrect tree
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
THOSE who insisted that the Queen pay income tax were barking up the wrong tree.
You're barking up the wrong tree.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “bark up the wrong tree” mean?
To pursue a mistaken or misguided line of thought or action Literally: barking at the base of the incorrect tree
Is “bark up the wrong tree” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.