Word.ws English Dictionary

barking up the wrong tree

barking up the wrong tree is the present participle and gerund 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 barking up the wrong tree

What is barking up the wrong tree the present participle and gerund of?
Barking up the wrong tree is the present participle and gerund of bark up the wrong tree.

Words near barking up the wrong tree in the dictionary

  1. Barking Riverside
  2. barking spider
  3. barking spiders
  4. barking squirrel
  5. barking squirrels
  6. barking up the wrong tree
  7. barkingly
  8. barkings
  9. Barkingside
  10. Barkis is willin'
  11. Barkis is willing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barking 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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