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boondoggle

[boon-dog-uhl, -daw-guhl] / ˈbunˌdɒg əl, -ˌdɔ gəl /




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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I thought the rejection was the right call, because the proposal struck me as a private boondoggle, with no designated customer for the water and a slurry of environmental hazards.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 11, 2026

Was it an exciting new form of entertainment, or a boondoggle?

From BBC Mar. 30, 2026

He vehemently denied that the United States was entering into another long-term boondoggle in the Middle East.

From Salon Mar. 2, 2026

As often happens too, we can pinpoint the exact moment and exact dynamics when a policy boondoggle was born.

From The Wall Street Journal Oct. 14, 2025

The United States has not embarked upon its formidable program of space exploration in order to make or perpetuate a gigantic astronautic boondoggle.

From The Practical Values of Space Exploration Report of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Eighty-Sixth Congress, Second Session by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Astronautics.

And no rules at the Guardian, apparently, regarding outrageous boondoggles and ocean-going junkets.

From The Wall Street Journal Oct. 9, 2025

Discovery CEO David Zaslav, in contrast with the preceding AT&T regime, has rejected big streaming movies as boondoggles.

From Los Angeles Times Dec. 22, 2022

And triumphs such as “Hamilton” and boondoggles like “King Kong.”

From Washington Post Nov. 4, 2022

These "boondoggles," as the report calls them, would harm local communities and exacerbate climate change, all while failing to solve the traffic and safety problems they claim to address.

From Salon Sep. 18, 2022

The Underdowns don’t like to come out here in the boondoggles, so believe you me this was an occasion.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

“What’s the word — boondoggled? Hornswaggled?” the former mailman and Vietnam War veteran said with an easy chuckle while seated at a table off the deserted bar at the Hollywood Roosevelt on a recent afternoon.

From Los Angeles Times Oct. 3, 2016

I think that you can’t ever protect yourself from boondoggling.

From Salon Sep. 19, 2019

How do you think this cautionary tale plays that such boondoggling won’t happen again?

From Salon Sep. 19, 2019

In Chicago and other cities, critics of anti-poverty youth programs object chiefly that they are uninspired make-work projects patterned after the boondoggling Depression-era WPA.

From Time Magazine Archive

All U.S. good-neighborly schemes are not tainted with boondoggling.

From Time Magazine Archive

And while they were boondoggling around in Litchfield, we could pick out the best workers, get rid of the incompetents, and train a few supervisors.

From The Cosmic Computer by H. Beam Piper




Vocabulary lists containing boondoggle


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