To engage in futile or useless endeavors; to exert effort in vain; to perform a fruitless task.
他花费了大量时间在那些不重要的细节上，简直是镂脂翦楮，对最终成果毫无帮助
He spent a lot of time on those unimportant details, which was simply a futile effort, offering no help to the final outcome.
Era:
Early Modern
Frequency:
Next Idiom