fool's errand

English

Etymology

18th century.^[1]

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

fool's errand (plural fools' errands)

1. (idiomatic) A foolish undertaking, especially one that is purposeless, fruitless, nonsensical, or certain to fail.

   Synonyms: idiot's errand, lost errand, sleeveless errand, wild-goose chase

   • 1821, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 1, in Kenilworth:

     If I were to travel only that I might be discontented with that which I can get at home, methinks I should go but on a fool's errand.

   • 1988 March 7, Michael S. Serrill, “Diplomacy To Dream the Impossible Dream”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 2013-06-30:

     Shultz took little notice of the Soviet view or that of others who said his Middle East mission was a fool's errand. "You can't be too afraid of failing," said the 67-year-old diplomat.

2. (idiomatic) Such an undertaking, assigned as a prank.

   Synonym: snipe hunt

   Near-synonym: wild-goose chase

   Meronyms: blinker fluid, key to the midway, left-handed monkey wrench, muffler bearing, skyhook

Translations

foolish undertaking

Finnish: hullun homma, hullutus (fi) German: vergebliche Mühe f, Metzgergang (de) m (rare, dated) Hebrew: ברכה לבטלה (he), משימה שנידונה לכישלון, משימה אבודה מראש Italian: compito da pazzi, follia (it) f, impresa folle Japanese: 骨折り損 (honeorizon), むだ足 (mudaashi) Polish: próżny wysiłek m Portuguese: caça aos gambozinos Spanish: misión imposible f, tarea de tontos f Turkish: abesle iştigal, boş iş, abesle uğraşmak (tr)

prank — see snipe hunt

References

1. Gary Martin (1997–) “Fool's errand”, in The Phrase Finder.