"chase shadows" meaning in All languages combined

See chase shadows on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Forms: chases shadows [present, singular, third-person], chasing shadows [participle, present], chased shadows [participle, past], chased shadows [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} chase shadows (third-person singular simple present chases shadows, present participle chasing shadows, simple past and past participle chased shadows)
  1. To pursue something that is impossible to attain. Related terms: chase a rainbow
    Sense id: en-chase_shadows-en-verb-M6BCNmZU Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "chases shadows",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chasing shadows",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chased shadows",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chased shadows",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "chase shadows (third-person singular simple present chases shadows, present participle chasing shadows, simple past and past participle chased shadows)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pursue something that is impossible to attain."
      ],
      "id": "en-chase_shadows-en-verb-M6BCNmZU",
      "links": [
        [
          "pursue",
          "pursue"
        ],
        [
          "attain",
          "attain"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "chase a rainbow"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "chase shadows"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "chases shadows",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chasing shadows",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chased shadows",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chased shadows",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "chase shadows (third-person singular simple present chases shadows, present participle chasing shadows, simple past and past participle chased shadows)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "chase a rainbow"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pursue something that is impossible to attain."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pursue",
          "pursue"
        ],
        [
          "attain",
          "attain"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "chase shadows"
}

Download raw JSONL data for chase shadows meaning in All languages combined (0.9kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-02 using wiktextract (8b3c49c and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.