boondoggle.
A braided ring to hold a neckerchief.
Meaning & usage
A braided ring to hold a neckerchief.
A waste of time or money; a pointless activity.
Opponents consider this another billion-dollar government boondoggle.
A trip or journey, especially a recreational or otherwise desirable one.
A trip or journey, especially a recreational or otherwise desirable one. A non-work trip away from a research station.
Where this word comes from
Coined 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.
To waste time on a pointless activity.
Where this word comes from
Coined 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.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.