in the weeds
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.52 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
prep_phrase
Overwhelmed with diners' orders.
prep_phrase
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, the, weeds.
Example Sentences
- "to get lost in the weeds"
- "It was in a series of such back-and-forth sessions that Rumsfeld crafted the war on Iraq. […] [G]enerals were alarmed to see a Defense Secretary get so far down in the weeds of a military operation."
- "Mr. Obama devoted so much time to the Afghan issue — nearly 11 hours on the day after Thanksgiving alone — that he joked, “I’ve got more deeply in the weeds than a president should, and now you guys need to solve this.”"
- "In order to ban prop trading, you first have to define it, and when you try, you are immediately in the weeds."
- "For readers who may be concerned about getting lost in the weeds, don’t worry. The authors do an excellent job hitting high points in an intelligible manner so that readers don’t need a PhD in climate science to see the patterns."
- "[…] many today will recognise in it the tendency of the left to prioritise ideological purity over concrete action, get lost in the weeds of theory and language, and ultimately turn on itself."
Etymology
Green's suggests an image or expression from golfing of US origin, from the difficulty of playing when the golf ball gets stuck in the weeds.
Usage
Synonyms
in over one's head