Word.ws English Dictionary

chases one's tail

chases one's tail is the third-person singular simple present indicative of chase one's tail.

Meaning of chase one's tail

Verb

chase one's tail (third-person singular simple present chases one's tail, present participle chasing one's tail, simple past and past participle chased one's tail)

  1. (idiomatic) To busily try to perform many tasks or to repeatedly revise one's plans, especially with inefficient use of one's time and limited results.
    • People wanting to get married . . . would have to trail around separately to arrange flowers, cars, a photographer, the cake and a reception venue. . . . "At the moment, they have to chase their tail making sure all these things are done."1994 August 4, Lynn Eaton, “Planning a wedding in one easy stop”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 26 Jun 2014
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see chase, one's, tail.

Questions about chases one's tail

What is chases one's tail the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Chases one's tail is the third-person singular simple present indicative of chase one's tail.

Words near chases one's tail in the dictionary

  1. chases after
  2. chases away
  3. chases down
  4. chases moonbeams
  5. chases off
  6. chases one's tail
  7. chases pennies with dollars
  8. chases rainbows
  9. chases shadows
  10. chases skirt
  11. chases tail

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chases one's tail (page history and authors); chase one's tail (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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