to strain at a gnat
- idiom
- Informal
- It is the very nature of government to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
Examples
-
Many people strain at a gnat, emphasizing small mistakes while overlooking the larger problems in the report.
-
People ' ... strain at a gnat and swallow a camel ' when it comes to killing an animal.
Blog text (7) -
He tends to strain at a gnat when discussing minor regulations while ignoring the bigger issues at hand.
-
During the meeting, she would strain at a gnat by focusing on trivial budget details instead of the overall project goals.
Synonyms
4
7.7
Worry too much about small, unimportant things
1
6.7
To worry too much about small, unimportant things
Antonyms
How Nitpicky
- Informal
15
6.8
- Informal
21
5.7
1
7.5
243
2.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase links 'strain' (exertion/effort or to filter) with 'gnat' (a tiny insect), so learners could plausibly infer ‘making a big effort over something very small.’ However, the full idiomatic sense — fussing over trivialities while neglecting larger issues — and the Biblical/archaic phrasing are not fully predictable from the parts, so prior exposure is usually needed for the complete meaning.
Etymology
Strain at a gnat comes from an old story in the Bible where someone tries to strain to remove a tiny gnat but lets a large 'camel' go by. So the image shows caring about a tiny thing while ignoring a much bigger problem, and today the phrase means 'pay too much attention to small details and miss the important issues'.