tail wagging the dog

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a situation where a small part is controlling the whole of something. John was just hired yesterday, and today he's bossing everyone around. It's a case of the tail wagging the dog. Why is this small matter taking so much time? Now it's the tail wagging the dog!

See also: dog, tail, wag

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Geoff Tail wagging the dog I find it unbelievable that we have Andrew Franklin telling us that horses should be withdrawn if they delay the start. CHATROOM by The Racing Post (London, England) Is it a case of the tail wagging the dog or simply a cheap shot at raising the Plaid candidate's political profile? Island cash; yourLETTERS by Daily Post (Liverpool, England) This is the worst case of the tail wagging the dog I have ever come across. Slash this red tape; Your Say by Evening Gazette (Middlesbrough, England)			switched on swoon over swoop swoop down on sword sympathize with sympathy synchronize with system tab tab for table table a motion tack tack down tack on tack onto tack up tag tag along tag out tail tail after tail between legs tail off tail wagging the dog tailor tailor to tailor-made tailor-made for taint with take take a back seat take a backseat take a bath take a beating take a bite out of take a blind bit of notice take a bow take a break take a chance take a chance on take a cold shower take a collection up take a course take a crack at take a deep breath take a dig at take a dim view take a dim view of take a dirt nap			tail switch louse tail switch louse tail tag tail tag tail tag tail tag tail tag Tail Tendon Break Time Tail Tendon Fibre Break Time tail tie tail tie tail tie tail tie tail tie tail tip necrosis tail tip necrosis tail tip necrosis tail tip necrosis tail tip necrosis tail tone tail tone tail tone tail tone tail tone tail track system tail trimmer tail vertebral hemal process tail vertebral hemal process tail vertebral hemal process tail vertebral hemal process tail wagging the dog Tail Wags Dog Tail Warning Radar Tail Warning Radar Tail Warning System Tail wheel Tail Wheel Lock tail wind tail wind tail wind Tail Wire Antenna tail worm tail worm tail worm tail worm tail worm Tail-bay Tail-Biting Convolutional Encoding Tail-Biting Trellis Tail-Biting Trellis-Coded Quantization Tail-bone Tail-bone Tail-bone Tail-call elimination Tail-call optimisation Tail-call optimization Tail-coat Tail-end Tail-end charlie Tail-end recursion Tail-ender

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