English Explanatory Dictionary

yak shaving

English dictionary entry

Meanings

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

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-yak shaving.wav

Word forms

yak shaving

Etymology

Coined by Carlin Vieri in his time at the MIT AI Lab (1993–1998) after viewing a segment at the end of "The Boy Who Cried Rat!" (1991), the sixth episode of the first season of The Ren and Stimpy Show. The segment featured "Yak Shaving Day", a Christmas-like holiday where participants watch for the shaven yak to float by in his enchanted canoe.

Related words

bikeshedding when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp
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