A needle in a haystack is something almost impossible to find among lots of similar things. It usually comes as a comparison: Finding one unsigned form among these boxes is like looking for a needle in a haystack. People say it about a file with no name, a letter with no date, a face in a crowd.
When would you say a needle in a haystack?
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like looking for / trying to find a needle in a haystack
- Finding one unsigned form among these boxes is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
- Without a date or a filename, that recording is a needle in a haystack.
- We narrowed the search so it no longer felt like looking for a needle in a haystack.
What changed
First versionFinding that receipt is like looking a needle in a haystack.
RevisionFinding that receipt is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Search and seek take their object directly, as in search the room or seek help, so looking a needle can seem fine. But look needs for when you're trying to find something: look for a needle. Add for, and the comparison works.
A wild goose chase is a search for something that doesn't exist or can't be found: wasted effort. A needle in a haystack is there, it's just terribly hard to find. Few and far between means there are only a few, and they're rare.
Your turn
Complete the idiom: Finding the right photo among thousands is like looking ___ a needle in a haystack.
Show the answer
for — Trying to find something is look for. Look at means directing your eyes at something, and there's nothing to look at yet.
Describe searching for something among thousands of files, emails or objects. Use like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Without the sender's name, finding that message is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
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