see the forest for the trees
Verb
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Verb
see the forest for the trees
- (idiomatic) To discern an overall pattern from a mass of detail; to see the big picture, or the broader, more general situation.
- (idiomatic, in the negative, by extension) To be overwhelmed by detail to the point where it obscures the overall situation.
- Smith is good at detail, but can't see the forest for the trees.
- French: l'arbre qui cache la forêt
- German: den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht sehen
- Portuguese: ver a floresta pelas árvores
- Russian: не ви́деть ле́са за дере́вьями
- Spanish: no dejar los árboles ver el bosque
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005