Meaning
To labour hard at something that cannot possibly succeed; effort poured into an undertaking as barren as a field of sand, since sand turned by the plough yields no crop. Usually found in the infinitive or -ing form and now mainly literary: 'campaigning in that constituency is just ploughing the sands'. American spelling gives 'plow the sand(s)'. Literary and somewhat elevated in register; more often written than spoken. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The proverbial image of tilling sand as the type of wasted work is old: the Oxford English Dictionary records 'to plough the sand (also sands)', defined as labouring fruitlessly or uselessly, with a first citation dated a1565, that is, before 1565. The figure circulated widely in early modern writing; Robert Burton used it in The Anatomy of Melancholy, and Hoyt's Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations pairs 'Plough the sands' with the Latin 'arenas arantes', attributing it to Massinger's play The Renegado. Etymonline notes that English accumulated a family of plough metaphors in the Middle English period, with this fruitless-ploughing one appearing slightly later. A celebrated public use came from H. H. Asquith at Birmingham on 21 November 1894. Classical tags about sowing or ploughing sand are often claimed as ancestors, but the line documented by the sources above is the English one.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- plough the sand
- ploughing the sands
- plow the sand
- plow the sands
Usage Examples
- Trying to teach him spreadsheet basics is ploughing the sands; he deletes the formulas every week.
- Critics warned the ministry that subsidising the route was ploughing the sands, and passenger numbers proved them right.
- She kept ploughing the sands with appeal after appeal, though the tribunal had ruled conclusively.