Examples of gnat

• No more than an elephant can use its trunk to swat a swarm of gnats, is modern, conventional military technology capable of putting an end to low-intensity war.

• It is no use sending a swarm of gnats to swat an elephant, because it does not work.

• Having accepted the peace plan—or, so to speak, the camel—they are straining at gnats.

• So having swallowed the camel we must not strain at the gnat of the order.

• You have the camel; you ought not to strain at the gnat.

• I shall not be guilty of straining at the gnat or swallowing a camel.

• It is a steam roller, admittedly to crush a gnat, but it is a steam roller.

• We are in danger, if we accept the new clause, of creating a camel to strain at one or two gnats.