Word.ws English Dictionary

chasing one's tail

chasing one's tail is the present participle and gerund 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 chasing one's tail

What is chasing one's tail the present participle and gerund of?
Chasing one's tail is the present participle and gerund of chase one's tail.

Words near chasing one's tail in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chasing 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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