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Pursuing a mistaken line of inquiry, accusing the wrong person, or directing energy fruitlessly.
"If you suspect him of the computer glitch, you are barking up the wrong tree."
"The detectives realized they had been barking up the wrong tree for weeks."
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Employs animal behavior or imagery ('barking') to express figurative human conduct.
Early 19th-century American hunting lore: hunting dogs chasing raccoons would bark frantically at the base of a tree after the prey had leapt to an adjacent branch.
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