herd cats | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic,in similes)Toattempttocontroltheuncontrollable; to attempt to manage a great many unruly factors or people to a single end.Managing volunteers from fourteen different organizations is likeherding cats.1983, Paul Henry Mussen,Handbook of Child Psychology, volume 4, page viii:Finally, you present this vision and your goals to the authors; after that it’s likeherding cats. Authors have their own perspectives on their topics, their own notions about what constitutes significant issues and adequate coverage1987, Lance Brilliantine, “Dual color copying”, inOffice Administration and Automation, page20:Trying to predict the future of office automation is like trying toherd cats. Things go in so many directions, you end up with a fist full of air.2004, Kent Conrad, “Tributes to Thomas A. Daschle”, inProceedings in the Senate(US Senate):The job of leader has often been compared toherding cats. It is not easy, but Senator DASCHLE did an outstanding job.2021January 13, Paul Clifton, “Delivering a basis for rail changes”, inRAIL. issue 922, page32:It must feel likeherding cats, with 20-or-so members and with the big five franchise owning groups.; Used other than figuratively or idiomatically:seeherd,‎cat.1924, Daniel Wolford La Rue,The Child’s Mind and the Common Branches,→OCLC, page36:It would be hard teaching a shepherd dog toherd cats, or even to herd sheep, before he leaves off his puppy ways and shows himself ready to become a good shepherd.

Examples:

EN: It's like trying to herd cats.
ES: Es como juntar un rebaño de gatos.
EN: - Dogs herd cats.
ES: Los perros lastiman gatos.
ID: - Anjing menggembalakan kucing.
EN: "Like trying to herd cats," is how Fr.
HI: 'संपत्तियां ज़ब्त करोगे तो कर्ज़ कैसे चुकाऊंगा'
EN: - It's like trying to herd cats.
ID: -Seperti menggembalakan kucing.
EN: You can't herd cats, and they spend 20 hours a day sleeping.
TE: ఒక కుక్క టేబుల్ నుండి బన్నులను లాగడానికి మీరు అనుమతించలేరు మరియు రోజుకు 24 గంటలు నిద్రపోతారు.
EN: As Marc said, we were trying to herd cats.
TE: మార్షల్ మెక్లూహన్ చెప్పినట్లు మనం సాధన సంపత్తిని తయారు చేసుకుంటున్నాం.
EN: Whoever gets the job will need to be able to herd cats.
TE: చాలీ చాలని ఉపాధితో కొట్టుమిట్టాడుతున్న వారందరికీ కొనుగోలు శక్తి కల్పించాలి.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).