seek a knot in a bulrush

English

Alternative forms

  • seek knots in a bulrush
  • seek knots in bulrushes
  • look for a knot in a bulrush

Etymology

Calque of Latin nōdum in scirpō quaerō.

Verb

seek a knot in a bulrush (third-person singular simple present seeks a knot in a bulrush, present participle seeking a knot in a bulrush, simple past and past participle sought a knot in a bulrush)

  1. (archaic) To find problems where none exist.
    • 2002, Dr Martin Garrett, Sidney: The Critical Heritage‎[1], →ISBN, page 138:
      When others, with dirty hands, strive to cleanse these psalms, they seem to seek a knot in a bulrush and (to put the matter in a word) while they polish they pollute.

Translations

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.