To follow a false scent; to pursue a road that leads nowhere.
1833. It does n’t take a Philadelphia lawyer to tell, that the man who serves the master one day, and the enemy six, has just six chances out of the seven to go to the devil; you are barking up the wrong tree, Johnson,—take a fresh start, and try to get on the right trail.—James Hall, ‘Legends of the West,’ p. 46. (Italics in the original.)
1833. I told him that he had got hold of the wrong man; that he did n’t know who he was fooling with; that he reminded me of the meanest thing on God’s earth, an old coon dog, barking up the wrong tree.—‘Sketches of D. Crockett,’ p. 58 (N.Y.).
1834. [The Indians] to use another western phrase, “barked up the wrong tree” when they got hold of Tom Smith.—Albert Pike, ‘Sketches,’ &c., p. 34 (Boston).
1836. You ’ve been barking up the wrong tree, cried the Ohioan.—Knickerbocker Mag., vii. 15 (Jan.).
1836. Job, little dreaming that he was barking up the wrong tree, shoved along another bottle, which my constituents quickly disposed of with great good humour.—‘Col. Crockett in Texas,’ p. 20 (Phila.).
1838. Instead of having treed their game, gentlemen will find themselves still “barking up the wrong tree.”—Mr. Duncan of Ohio in the House of Representatives, July 7: Cong. Globe, p. 474, Appendix.
1839. The same reckless indifference which causes a puppy to bark up the wrong tree.—Chemung (N.Y.) Democrat, September 18.
1840. We would whisper in our friend The.’s ear, that he has barked up the wrong tree.—John P. Kennedy, ‘Quodlibet,’ p. 148 (1860).
1841. The stockjobbers were barking up the wrong tree when they wrote these letters.—Mr. Duncan of Ohio, House of Representatives, Jan. 25: Cong. Globe, p. 153, Appendix.
1841. He is barking up the wrong tree this time.—Knick. Mag., xvii. 27 (Jan.).
1850. On finding that he had been barking up the wrong tree, he told them that he had gold in his pocket.—Frontier Guardian (Iowa), Dec. 11, edited by Orson Hyde.
1855. Such a scout’s no better than a mangy dog that barks up the wrong tree.—W. G. Simms, ‘The Forayers,’ p. 447 (N.Y.).
1859. Isn’t it barely possible that you may have been barking up the wrong tree?—Knick. Mag., liv. 442 (Oct.).
1866. If my coon dog does sometimes bark up the wrong tree, he don’t mean any harm by it.—C. H. Smith, ‘Bill Arp,’ p. 72–3.
