"boondoggle" meaning in All languages combined

See boondoggle on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

IPA: /ˈbuːndɒɡl̩/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈbundɑɡl̩/ [General-American] Audio: en-us-boondoggle.ogg Forms: boondoggles [plural]
Etymology: Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929; alternatively “boon doggle”. Compare woggle of similar sense, attested in same period. In sense of “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. Etymology templates: {{coinage|en|Robert H. Link|in=1929|nat=American|nobycat=1|occ=scout leader|w=-}} Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929 Head templates: {{en-noun}} boondoggle (plural boondoggles)
  1. (especially scouting) A braided ring to hold a neckerchief. Categories (topical): Scouting Synonyms: woggle
    Sense id: en-boondoggle-en-noun--ILteGzj
  2. (Canada, US, figuratively, usually politics) A waste of time and/or money; a pointless activity. Tags: Canada, US, figuratively, usually Categories (topical): Politics Translations (pointless activity): tijdverspilling (Dutch), ajanhukka (Finnish), rahareikä (Finnish), Zeitverschwendung [feminine] (German), за́лудност (záludnost) [feminine] (Macedonian), pérdida de tiempo [feminine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-boondoggle-en-noun-VV6y8chd Categories (other): American English, Canadian English Topics: government, politics Disambiguation of 'pointless activity': 0 100
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Derived forms: boondoggler, moondoggle

Verb [English]

IPA: /ˈbuːndɒɡl̩/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈbundɑɡl̩/ [General-American] Audio: en-us-boondoggle.ogg Forms: boondoggles [present, singular, third-person], boondoggling [participle, present], boondoggled [participle, past], boondoggled [past]
Etymology: Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929; alternatively “boon doggle”. Compare woggle of similar sense, attested in same period. In sense of “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. Etymology templates: {{coinage|en|Robert H. Link|in=1929|nat=American|nobycat=1|occ=scout leader|w=-}} Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929 Head templates: {{en-verb}} boondoggle (third-person singular simple present boondoggles, present participle boondoggling, simple past and past participle boondoggled)
  1. (intransitive) To waste time on a pointless activity. Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-boondoggle-en-verb-63C49mig Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Dutch translations, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Macedonian translations, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 3 27 70 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 8 7 85 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 4 11 85 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 3 7 89 Disambiguation of Terms with Dutch translations: 9 7 84 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 7 29 64 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 8 11 81 Disambiguation of Terms with Macedonian translations: 7 29 64 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 5 5 90

Inflected forms

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "boondoggler"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "moondoggle"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
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        "2": "Robert H. Link",
        "in": "1929",
        "nat": "American",
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        "w": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929",
      "name": "coinage"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929; alternatively “boon doggle”. Compare woggle of similar sense, attested in same period.\nIn sense of “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.",
  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "boondoggle (plural boondoggles)",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Scouting",
          "orig": "en:Scouting",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A braided ring to hold a neckerchief."
      ],
      "id": "en-boondoggle-en-noun--ILteGzj",
      "links": [
        [
          "scouting",
          "scouting"
        ],
        [
          "braid",
          "braid"
        ],
        [
          "neckerchief",
          "neckerchief"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "especially scouting",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(especially scouting) A braided ring to hold a neckerchief."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "woggle"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Canadian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Politics",
          "orig": "en:Politics",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Opponents consider this another billion-dollar government boondoggle.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1971 September 19, Tom Wicker, “In the Nation”, in The New York Times, retrieved 2018-08-13:",
          "text": "Senator John Stennis […] has been active and effective for so long as a member of the Armed Services Committee that he knows as well as any man can where the bodies are buried in the Pentagon and the boondoggles are buried in the defense budget.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Nicholas Johnson, “Chapter 3 Notes”, in Big Dead Place, →ISBN:",
          "text": "By its strictest definition, a boondoggle is a recreational trip out of town, but it has been blurred by threadbare jokes to mean any trip that is desirable, whether for work or not.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 November 6, Rob Nixon, “Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’”, in New York Times:",
          "text": "Klein dismantles the boondoggle that is cap and trade.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 May 2, “Iter, a reactor in France, may deliver fusion power as early as 2045”, in The Economist, →ISSN:",
          "text": "For cynics, it is a boondoggle plagued by delays (it began in 2007 and was supposed to begin experiments in 2016, but this will not now happen until 2025), questionable management and ballooning costs (double the original estimate).",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A waste of time and/or money; a pointless activity."
      ],
      "id": "en-boondoggle-en-noun-VV6y8chd",
      "links": [
        [
          "Canada",
          "Canada"
        ],
        [
          "US",
          "American English"
        ],
        [
          "politics",
          "politics"
        ],
        [
          "waste",
          "waste"
        ],
        [
          "time",
          "time"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ],
        [
          "pointless",
          "pointless"
        ],
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US, figuratively, usually politics) A waste of time and/or money; a pointless activity."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US",
        "figuratively",
        "usually"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "pointless activity",
          "word": "tijdverspilling"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "pointless activity",
          "word": "ajanhukka"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "pointless activity",
          "word": "rahareikä"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "pointless activity",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Zeitverschwendung"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "code": "mk",
          "lang": "Macedonian",
          "roman": "záludnost",
          "sense": "pointless activity",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "за́лудност"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "pointless activity",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "pérdida de tiempo"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbuːndɒɡl̩/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbundɑɡl̩/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-boondoggle.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9d/En-us-boondoggle.ogg/En-us-boondoggle.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/En-us-boondoggle.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Michael Quinion"
  ],
  "word": "boondoggle"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
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        "in": "1929",
        "nat": "American",
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        "w": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929",
      "name": "coinage"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929; alternatively “boon doggle”. Compare woggle of similar sense, attested in same period.\nIn sense of “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.",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "boondoggles",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "boondoggling",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
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    },
    {
      "form": "boondoggled",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "boondoggled",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "3 27 70",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "_dis": "7 29 64",
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          "kind": "other",
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          "_dis": "7 29 64",
          "kind": "other",
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        },
        {
          "_dis": "5 5 90",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To waste time on a pointless activity."
      ],
      "id": "en-boondoggle-en-verb-63C49mig",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To waste time on a pointless activity."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbuːndɒɡl̩/",
      "tags": [
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    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbundɑɡl̩/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
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      "audio": "en-us-boondoggle.ogg",
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  "wikipedia": [
    "Michael Quinion"
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  "word": "boondoggle"
}
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    "English nouns",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Dutch translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "Terms with Macedonian translations",
    "Terms with Spanish translations"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "boondoggler"
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      "word": "moondoggle"
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  "etymology_templates": [
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        "2": "Robert H. Link",
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        "w": "-"
      },
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      "name": "coinage"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929; alternatively “boon doggle”. Compare woggle of similar sense, attested in same period.\nIn sense of “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.",
  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "boondoggle (plural boondoggles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Scouting"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A braided ring to hold a neckerchief."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "scouting",
          "scouting"
        ],
        [
          "braid",
          "braid"
        ],
        [
          "neckerchief",
          "neckerchief"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "especially scouting",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(especially scouting) A braided ring to hold a neckerchief."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "woggle"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "Canadian English",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "en:Politics"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Opponents consider this another billion-dollar government boondoggle.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1971 September 19, Tom Wicker, “In the Nation”, in The New York Times, retrieved 2018-08-13:",
          "text": "Senator John Stennis […] has been active and effective for so long as a member of the Armed Services Committee that he knows as well as any man can where the bodies are buried in the Pentagon and the boondoggles are buried in the defense budget.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Nicholas Johnson, “Chapter 3 Notes”, in Big Dead Place, →ISBN:",
          "text": "By its strictest definition, a boondoggle is a recreational trip out of town, but it has been blurred by threadbare jokes to mean any trip that is desirable, whether for work or not.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014 November 6, Rob Nixon, “Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’”, in New York Times:",
          "text": "Klein dismantles the boondoggle that is cap and trade.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 May 2, “Iter, a reactor in France, may deliver fusion power as early as 2045”, in The Economist, →ISSN:",
          "text": "For cynics, it is a boondoggle plagued by delays (it began in 2007 and was supposed to begin experiments in 2016, but this will not now happen until 2025), questionable management and ballooning costs (double the original estimate).",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A waste of time and/or money; a pointless activity."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Canada",
          "Canada"
        ],
        [
          "US",
          "American English"
        ],
        [
          "politics",
          "politics"
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        [
          "waste",
          "waste"
        ],
        [
          "time",
          "time"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ],
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          "pointless",
          "pointless"
        ],
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          "activity",
          "activity"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Canada, US, figuratively, usually politics) A waste of time and/or money; a pointless activity."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US",
        "figuratively",
        "usually"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "politics"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbuːndɒɡl̩/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbundɑɡl̩/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-boondoggle.ogg",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/En-us-boondoggle.ogg"
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  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "pointless activity",
      "word": "tijdverspilling"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "pointless activity",
      "word": "ajanhukka"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "pointless activity",
      "word": "rahareikä"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "pointless activity",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Zeitverschwendung"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "záludnost",
      "sense": "pointless activity",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "за́лудност"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "pointless activity",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "pérdida de tiempo"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Michael Quinion"
  ],
  "word": "boondoggle"
}

{
  "categories": [
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    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Dutch translations",
    "Terms with Finnish translations",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "Terms with Macedonian translations",
    "Terms with Spanish translations"
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        "w": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929",
      "name": "coinage"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Coined by American scout leader Robert H. Link in 1929; alternatively “boon doggle”. Compare woggle of similar sense, attested in same period.\nIn sense of “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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      "form": "boondoggles",
      "tags": [
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        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "boondoggling",
      "tags": [
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      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "boondoggled",
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        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "boondoggled",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To waste time on a pointless activity."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To waste time on a pointless activity."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbuːndɒɡl̩/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbundɑɡl̩/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
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      "audio": "en-us-boondoggle.ogg",
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/En-us-boondoggle.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Michael Quinion"
  ],
  "word": "boondoggle"
}

Download raw JSONL data for boondoggle meaning in All languages combined (6.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.