a needle in a haystack

needle in a haystack

Something that is very difficult to locate. Trying to find my contact lens on the floor was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
See also: haystack, needle

a needle in a haystack

something that is almost impossible to find because it is concealed by so many other similar things.
2002 New York Times Magazine Terrorists don't fit a consistent profile: you're looking for a needle in a haystack, but the color and shape of the needle keep changing.
See also: haystack, needle
References in classic literature ?
The wind was fair but fitful, and it was like looking for a needle in a haystack to raise that tiny boat out of the blue immensity.
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But to hunt on a dark night for a boy in a sea of mud would be like hunting for a needle in a haystack, and he did not attempt it.
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I came here, looking for a needle in a haystack, and I ain't found it.
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