boondoggle
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
Critics called it a boondoggle, but WPA got millions of Americans back to work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
Opponents call the project a costly boondoggle, arguing it’s not necessary and would destroy the Delta.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026
Was it an exciting new form of entertainment, or a boondoggle?
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2026
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
He’s played no more than 58 games in any of the four seasons since signing a seven-year, $245-million contract, calling to mind previous boondoggles Josh Hamilton, Vernon Wells and Albert Pujols.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2023
I want to know about the boondoggles and the scandalous demolitions and the gems; the engineering follies and the perfect streets; the gargoyles and the starchitects and the bars with walls like old gorgonzola.
From Slate ● Dec. 8, 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
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
This is merely boondoggling on a global scale.
From Time Magazine Archive
He knows what is boondoggling and what is not.
From The Armed Forces Officer Department of the Army Pamphlet 600-2 by United States. Dept. of Defense
Vocabulary lists containing boondoggle
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