Dictionary

count angels on pinheads en · VERB

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To focus on obtaining the correct details of something which are largely irrelevant or unimportant.
   • It adds to the trend that law schools and law journals are no longer content to count angels on pinheads. Date unknown: United States Congress House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Hearings, p1315
   • Connectedness is a requirement for higher education if our academic work is not to be merely the technological equivalent of counting angels on pinheads. 1999, Carol J. Dempsey, Russell A. Butkus, All Creation is Groaning: An Interdisciplinary Vision for Life in a Sacred Universe, page VIII:
   • …secondly, because it is thought to be wholly destructive, and “something has to be taught” — which is the equivalent of teaching people to count angels on pinheads when you no longer believe in the heavenly host and, thirdly, because it has seemed to be socialist in tone, direction and intention. 1962, Flinders University of South Australia & the University of Adelaide Deptartment of Economics, Australian Economic Papers, page 12:
   • In requesting that a closer look be given to hypothetical thinking and its role in the solving of problems, I do not suggest that counting angels on pinheads is a fruitful educational exercise. Thinking about the actual is one aspect of analytical thinking. 1951, The John Dewey Society, the Philosophy of Education Society (U.S.), and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign College of Education, Educational Theory, p185
   • Such assertions are motivated by the desire to leave the independent-particle model in place as the central paradigm in nuclear theory, but they inadvertently push theoretical nuclear physics in the direction of counting angels on pinheads: “Sure they’re there! It’s just that there aren’t any observable implications of their celestial presence!” 2006, Norman D. Cook, Models of the Atomic Nucleus: With Interactive Software, page 118:
   • It is not concerned with theological disputation; he does not count angels on pinheads. 1995, Henry David Thoreau, Walter Roy Harding, Walden: an annotated edition, page 1:

Forms

Relateds

fiddle while Rome burns · rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic · angels dancing on the head of a pin

Translations (8)

pl przegapiać sedno (to spend time on fruitless intellectual matters) · it discutere del sesso degli angeli (to spend time on fruitless intellectual matters) · pt discutir o sexo dos anjos (to spend time on fruitless intellectual matters) · ca discutir sobre el sexe dels àngels (to spend time on fruitless intellectual matters) · fr discuter du sexe des anges (to spend time on fruitless intellectual matters) · fi laskea neulan kärjellä tanssivia enkeleitä (to spend time on fruitless intellectual matters) · pt debater o sexo dos anjos (to spend time on fruitless intellectual matters) · es discutir sobre el sexo de los ángeles (to spend time on fruitless intellectual matters)