Word.ws English Dictionary

barks up the wrong tree

barks up the wrong tree is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 barks up the wrong tree

What is barks up the wrong tree the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Barks up the wrong tree is the third-person singular simple present indicative of bark up the wrong tree.

Words near barks up the wrong tree in the dictionary

  1. barkpeelers
  2. barkpeeling
  3. barks
  4. barks at print
  5. barks at the wrong tree
  6. barks up the wrong tree
  7. Barksdale
  8. Barkses
  9. Barksian
  10. barksome
  11. Barkstead

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barks 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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “barks up the wrong tree.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barks_up_the_wrong_tree. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.