lead down the garden path

Idioms

Also, lead up the garden path. Deceive someone. For example, Bill had quite different ideas from Tom about their new investment strategy; he was leading him down the garden path. This expression presumably alludes to the garden path as an intentional detour. [Early 1900s] Also see lead on.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023