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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Over the years, the investment has looked like either a stroke of genius or a boondoggle, generally depending on the price of oil.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 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
They’ve called the tunnel a boondoggle that would harm the Delta and its deteriorating ecosystem, and have argued the project would saddle ratepayers with high costs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2024
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 Sam Williams
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
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
To many a hard-working businessman, scornful of boondoggling, the letters WPA mean We Putter Away.
From Time Magazine Archive
General theme: Chicago is a shoddy place to live, because of cupidity, stupidity, boondoggling and apathy.
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
100 Words to Make You Sound Smart
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This Week In Words: October 19–25, 2019
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Ben Zimmer's 30 Great American Words
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