needle in a haystack

Idioms  

1. An item that is very hard or impossible to locate, as in Looking for that screw in Dean's workshop amounts to looking for a needle in a haystack. Originating in the early 1500s, with meadow instead of haystack, this metaphor exists in many other languages as well.

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Example Sentences

While picking a big winner is like finding a proverbial needle in a haystack, it’s much easier than in 1926.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 23, 2026

“It’s a needle in a haystack to find an opportunity that makes financial sense to build today,” Goldstein said.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 1, 2025

"They are looking for a needle in a haystack, sometimes looking for single beetles - to get hold of the pioneer species before they are allowed to establish," Andrea Deol said.

From BBC • Aug. 30, 2025

“It’s a needle in a haystack you need to be really lucky to find.”

From Science Magazine • Jun. 19, 2024

For the Coast Guard, the Rum War was less a game of cat and mouse and more a case of a needle in a haystack.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield