see the forest for the trees

present singular third person sees the forest for the trees · participle present seeing the forest for the trees · past saw the forest for the trees · participle past seen the forest for the trees · alternative see the wood for the trees · alternative see the woods for the trees · alternative see the forest but for the trees · alternative see the forest through the trees · alternative see the trees through the forest · alternative miss the forest for the trees · alternative miss the wood for the trees · alternative miss the woods for the trees

1. idiomaticTo discern an overall pattern from a mass of detail; to see the big picture, or the broader, more general situation.

   Smith is good at detail, but can't see the forest for the trees.

   3 more examples

   It is, indeed, the principal drawback to the study of London that she is too vast—that the student is ever in danger of "not seeing the forest for the trees."

   1902, Emily Constance Baird Cook, Highways and Byways in London

   On the other hand, I have purposely treated the empirical physical foundations of the theory in a "step-motherly" fashion, so that readers unfamiliar with physics may not feel like the wanderer who was unable to see the forest for the trees.

   1916, Albert Einstein (tr. Robert W. Lawson), “Preface”, in Relativity: The Special and General Theory

   Your only failing is that you can't see the forest for the trees.

   1919, Louis Tracy, The Strange Case of Mortimer Fenley, page 96