wild-goose chase | Idiomator

Meaning: (figuratively)Afutilesearch, afruitlesserrand; auselessand often lengthy task whose execution is inordinately complex relative to the value of the outcome.Synonyms:merry dance,exercise in futility,fool's errand,snipe hunt,snark huntI went on awild-goose chaseall over the town looking for that adapter until I discovered they no longer make them.Diagnosing this software application's problems is awild-goose chasebecause it is built in an environment that has poor debugging tools.1912,Arthur Conan Doyle,The Lost World[…], London; New York, N.Y.:Hodder and Stoughton,→OCLC:From the beginning he has never concealed his belief that Professor Challenger is an absolute fraud, that we are all embarked upon an absurdwild-goose chaseand that we are likely to reap nothing but disappointment and danger in South America, and corresponding ridicule in England.

Examples:

EN: Bradford, if this idea of yours turns out to be a wild-goose chase...
ES: Bradford, si esta idea suya resulta ser un fiasco...
EN: You is on a wild-goose chase, mister.
ES: Está perdiendo el tiempo, señor.
EN: You've had this wild-goose chase for nothing, my boy.
ES: Has perdido el tiempo, chico.
EN: - I wish him luck with his wild-goose chase.
ES: - Le deseo suerte en su estúpida búsqueda.
EN: If you read my books, you'd know I wouldn't go on a wild-goose chase.
ES: Si lee mis libros, sabrá que no voy a la aventura.
EN: We're on a wild-goose chase.
ES: Estamos mareando la perdiz.
EN: Geese on a wild-goose chase.
ES: Gallinas en una cacería sin sentido.
EN: Just another wild-goose chase that some screwball agent dreamed up.
ES: Sólo era otra idea descabellada de un agente chiflado.
EN: You mean you sent Ruth over to Brooklyn on a wild-goose chase?
ES: ¿Me estás diciendo que enviaste a Ruth a Brooklyn para un esfuerzo inútil?
EN: A wild-goose chase.
ES: ¿A qué ha venido? Un presentimiento.
EN: I'm too old and too sick to go on a wild-goose chase.
ES: Estoy demasiado viejo y enfermo para salir tras una zanahoria.
EN: Well, sure, but... Jim McKay, do you mean they've been out on a wild-goose chase?
ES: Sí, pero... ¿quieres decir que han ido a buscarte para nada?
EN: - I told you it was a wild-goose chase.
ES: - Ya te dije que era una locura venir.
EN: The whole thing is a wild-goose chase.
ES: En mi opinion, todo este asunto es solo una mera fantasia.
EN: You have finished your wild-goose chase, I hope.
ES: Espero que hayas terminado tu ridícula búsqueda.

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 ).