[just curious : is "barking" the dog's sound in this context ?]
Indeed! It is actually the verb, ie. when a dog goes "Woof! Woof!" it is barking .... they also growl, yelp, whine and howl ;)
If you say a Human is barking, you are saying (in slang) that they are Mad ....
The noun, bark is the (crinkly brown etc.) covering on a tree ....
There is also is a (not so lovely) town in Essex called Barking (my apologies to any residents :)
Sylvain,
And the phrase is a reference to looking for something in the wrong place, as a dog chasing a cat but "barking" at a tree that the cat is not in.
Geoff
