barking up the wrong tree

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

pursuing a mistaken line of inquiry, directing effort or blame toward the wrong person or cause, or making false assumptions about where the solution to a problem lies; from hunting, where dogs chase quarry into a tree and bark up at it — but if the quarry has escaped to another tree the dog's efforts, however energetic, are entirely misdirected; the phrase describes not laziness or lack of effort but a fundamental error in the diagnosis of where the problem lies, making all subsequent effort irrelevant regardless of its intensity