General

deep in the weeds

What does deep in the weeds mean?

Deeply immersed in the minutiae of a task, often at the expense of the big picture.

"The engineers are deep in the weeds on the config format."

Variant of 'in the weeds'.

What does 'deep in the weeds' mean?

It means being deeply immersed in the small details of a task, often losing sight of the big picture.

Is being in the weeds bad?

Not always. Sometimes detail work is necessary, but the phrase often warns that someone is too caught up in minutiae.

Where does the phrase come from?

It's a variant of 'in the weeds', which also has roots in restaurant slang for being overwhelmed during a busy service.

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