chase (redirected from chasing up)

be chasing your tail

to be very busy doing a lot of things, but achieving very little. I've been chasing my tail all morning trying to fix a day when everyone can attend.

See also: tail

chase rainbows

to waste your time trying to get or achieve something impossible. I don't think my parents ever believed I'd make it as an actor. I think they thought I was just chasing rainbows. (usually in continuous tenses)

See also: rainbow

chase the dragon

to take heroin (= a powerful drug which is taken illegally for pleasure) by smoking it. The drug can be smoked, which is known as chasing the dragon.

cut to the chase (informal)

to talk about or deal with the important parts of a subject and not waste time with things that are not important. I didn't have long to talk to him so I cut to the chase and asked whether he was still married.

See also: cut

a paper chase (American & Australian)

the activity of dealing with many different documents in order to achieve something. To receive even the smallest amount of financial aid from a college, it's a real paper chase.

See also: paper

a wild-goose chase

a situation where you waste time looking for something that you are not going to find, either because that thing does not exist or because you have been given wrong information about it. After two hours spent wandering in the snow, I realised we were on a wild-goose chase. When I found out that there was no Anita Hill at the university, I began to suspect that I had been sent on a wild-goose chase.

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chasing rainbows

trying to achieve something that is not possible or practical. He wanted to go into show business, but friends told him to quit chasing rainbows.

See also: rainbow

cut to the chase

to say what is important without delay. The engine is the only thing wrong with the car — to cut to the chase, it is loud, really loud.

Etymology: based on the idea that, when describing a movie, the writer can cut (= interrupt) the story and explain the exciting parts, which usually involve a chase

See also: cut