🗓️ Idiom: Chase Your Tail (verb)
💬 Meaning
- Be very busy but not achieving anything useful.
- Do a lot of work without making progress.
🧠 Example Sentences
- I spent the whole morning chasing my tail with emails and meetings but got nothing done.
- Without a clear plan, the marketing team was just chasing its tail.
- He’s been chasing his tail trying to fix problems that keep coming back.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom comes from the image of a dog running in circles trying to catch its own tail. It looks busy, but it never succeeds. People started using this expression to describe situations where someone works hard but gets nowhere — just like the dog.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
If you don’t organise your tasks, you’ll end up __________ all day.
Answer
chasing your tail
2. Choose the correct option:
What does “chasing your tail” mean?
a) Working hard but getting nowhere
b) Doing something very fast
c) Making fast progress
Answer
a) Working hard but getting nowhere
3. Change the sentence using “chasing your tail”:
“We’re working non-stop, but we’re not making progress.”
Answer
We’re chasing our tails with all this work and still not moving forward.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
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👉 Time Management Idioms
👉 Business English Idioms List
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