beat one's head against the wall

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, bang or run one's head against or into a brick wall . Waste one's time in a hopeless enterprise, as in I have tried many times to convince him to stop smoking, but I'm beating my head against a brick wall . The metaphoric phrase alludes to a physical expression of frustration. [Late 1500s] Also see beat the air .

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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