Gnat-straining

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Fuss or importance placed on trivial things, to the exclusion of more significant matters. uncountable

    "Neither is it the case that gnat-straining leads to camel swallowing, nor tithe-paying to neglect of justice, mercy and faith."

Example

More examples

"Neither is it the case that gnat-straining leads to camel swallowing, nor tithe-paying to neglect of justice, mercy and faith."

Etymology

From gnat + straining.

Related phrases

gnat-strain

More for "gnat-straining"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.