Meaning of yak shaving | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Any apparently useless activity which, by allowing one to overcome intermediate difficulties, allows one to solve a larger problem.
   uncountable
2. A less useful activity done consciously or subconsciously to procrastinate about a larger but more useful task.
   uncountable

Examples

“I was doing a bit of yak shaving this morning, and it looks like it might have paid off.”

“I looked at a reference manual for my car just to answer one question, but I spent the whole afternoon with my nose buried in it, just yak shaving, and got no work done on the car itself.”

“For quotations using this term, see Citations:yak shaving.”

CEFR level