Word.ws English Dictionary

barked up the wrong tree

barked up the wrong tree is the simple past and past participle of bark up the wrong tree.

Meaning of bark up the wrong tree

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.

Questions about barked up the wrong tree

What is barked up the wrong tree the simple past and past participle of?
Barked up the wrong tree is the simple past and past participle of bark up the wrong tree.

Words near barked up the wrong tree in the dictionary

  1. Barkdulls
  2. barke
  3. barked
  4. barked at print
  5. barked at the wrong tree
  6. barked up the wrong tree
  7. barkeep
  8. barkeeped
  9. barkeeper
  10. barkeepers
  11. barkeeping

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barked up the wrong tree (page history and authors); bark up the wrong tree (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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