boondoggle
A braided ring to hold a neckerchiefA braided ring to hold a neckerchief.
» The project is over budget and unnecessary. It is a complete boondoggle.
rul · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
4 sensesA braided ring to hold a neckerchief.
(Canada, US, figuratively, usually)A waste of time or money; a pointless activity.
Opponents consider this another billion-dollar government boondoggle.
Zeitverschwendung, Zeitvergeudung
A trip or journey, especially a recreational or otherwise desirable one.
A trip or journey, especially a recreational or otherwise desirable one.
(slang)A non-work trip away from a research station.
- work of little or no value done merely to look busy
Examples
1 sentencesThe project is over budget and unnecessary. It is a complete boondoggle.
Translations
2 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929; alternatively “boon doggle”. CompaCoined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929; alternatively “boon doggle”. Compare woggle of similar sense, which is attested in the same period. In the sense of a “wasteful government program”, popularized in 1935 by The New York Times, in reference to New Deal programs which were claimed to feature people making such braids.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: boondoggles| Singular | boondoggle |
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| Plural | boondoggles |
regular