wild goose chase

基本解释

The boss sent me on a wild goose chase that wasted half the day.
老板给了我一项成功无望的任务，浪费了我大半天的时间。
baike.ef.com.cn
The Afghan strategy review has been too public and taken too long; the Middle East peace hunt has become a wild goose chase.
阿富汗战略回顾过于高调并耗时过长，寻求中东和平的努力变得徒劳无功。
Why haven't authorities, having spent millions of dollars, including a lot spent on the wild goose chase after Hatfill, been able to even identify the source of the anthrax ?
美国政府已经花费掉数百万美元了，其中包括在哈特费尔之后的一些荒谬无益的做法，为什么到现在还没有权威的部门来识别炭疽（病）的来源呢？

Orlando is still after Angelica, but with Alcina's help, he's sent off on a wild goose chase.
NPR: Love And Lunacy: Vivaldi's 'Orlando Furioso'
For half an hour, Rousselot walked around in the vicinity, wondering if the woman who lived with Morini had sent him on a wild goose chase, until eventually he began to feel tired and headed for the port.
NEWYORKER: Álvaro Rousselot’s Journey
Richter's diary recounts how Elgar told him that there was no thematic link to the variations, but that since they were finished on April 1st, Elgar had resolved to start a wild goose chase by pretending that there was.
ECONOMIST: Historical mendacity: Japes of the great

If you are on a wild goose chase, you waste a lot of time searching for something that you have little chance of finding, because you have been given incorrect information.