On a fool's errand

    白忙一场

    Fool是"傻瓜"，errand是"跑腿"。On a fool's errand是什么意思呢？请看对话：

    A: Has Bill found a job?

    B: Not yet. He went for an interview yesterday, but he was on a fool's errand. The job had already been filled.

    Note: This idiom means to be involved in a useless journey or task. The description "fool" is now often used as a contemptuous insult, but in the Middle Ages it didn't have such negative connotations. A fool then was a naive simpleton but regarded with respect and even admiration - somewhat the way that "the fool on the hill" is portrayed in The Beatles' song. The idiom first appeared in the 18th century. Earlier, people would use another term: a sleeveless errand. From the Tudor era to around the 1700s, "sleeveless" was commonly used to mean "futile" or "trifling."

    记住了吗？On a fool's errand就是“白忙一场”。