look for a needle in a haystack Definition

haystack
noun

1. A large firm stack of hay built in an open field and protected by plastic sheets or thatching.

Idiom: look for a needle in a haystack

To try to find something which is lost or hidden in a pile of things and so is almost impossible to find.

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needle
noun

1. A slender pointed steel sewing instrument with a hole for the thread.
2. A longer, thicker implement of metal, wood, bone or plastic, etc, without a hole, for knitting, crocheting, etc.
3a. A hypodermic syringe;
3b. Its pointed end.
4. medicine.
A slender instrument for suturing and dissection, etc.
5. A gramophone stylus.
6. The moving pointer on a compass or other instrument.
7. Anything slender, sharp and pointed.
8. A pinnacle of rock.
9. An obelisk.
10. A long slender crystal.
11. The needle-shaped leaf of a tree such as the pine or fir.
12. A strong beam passed through a wall as a temporary support.
13a. colloq
Provocation;
Form: the needle
13b. colloq
Irritation; anger;
Form: the needle
13c. colloq
Dislike.
Form: the needle

verb, tr & intr needled, needling

1. colloq
To provoke or irritate someone, especially deliberately.
Thesaurus: goad, spur, taunt, sting, rile, ruffle, nag, nettle, irritate, aggravate, annoy, bait, harass, irk, pester, provoke, quiz, question.
2. To sew.

Idiom: look for a needle in a haystack

To undertake a hopeless search.

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon nædl.