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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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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

Organizers sought not only to remind the world that the Olympics were about joie de vivre, but also that the project didn’t need to be a $50 billion boondoggle.

From The Wall Street Journal Feb. 15, 2026

“This is turning out to be a bigger boondoggle than was originally sold to the public,” said Hahn, who said she had not been told about the upgrade costs.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 26, 2025

Framed by million-dollar views and the multimillion dollar real estate of the Silversword Golf Course, the center seems like the ultimate scientific boondoggle.

From Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software by Williams, Sam

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

Last week this bureaucratic boondoggling angered the White House, which regards a commercial jet fleet as a transport reserve needed for national defense.

From Time Magazine Archive

The new President closed the banks and launched the 100-day "Roosevelt Revolution" with its rubber dollar, blue eagle, boondoggling and plowed-under pigs, not to mention the phrase: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

From Time Magazine Archive

Walter, do you remember when the one thing in the world that made you maddest was boondoggling?

From U.S. Copyright Renewals, 1969 July - December by Library of Congress. Copyright Office




Vocabulary lists containing boondoggle


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