Did you mean: boondoggle, Boondoggle (Rock Band, '90s), Boondoggle (1994 Album by The Lucksmiths), The Boondoggle: The Waltons (TV Episode) (1975 Drama TV Episode)
Dictionary:
boon·dog·gle (būn'dô'gəl, -dŏg'əl)  Informal. |
[Coined by Robert H. Link (died 1957), American scoutmaster.]
boondoggler boon'dog'gler n.| 5min Related Video: boondoggle |
| Business Dictionary: Boondoggle |
A makework project that is useless in function.
| Word Origin: boondoggle |
A boondoggle was just a little recreation for Boy Scouts and cowboys until the government took over. Some say it began as a craft project to keep Scouts busy and quiet, braiding the ends of a lanyard or leather strap to be worn around the neck for decoration or to hold something like a key. Similarly, at home on the range on an idle day, cowboys would make boondoggles by weaving together odd scraps of leather as decorations for their saddles or other equipment. In the mid-1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, someone who was skeptical about newly created government jobs gave them the contemptuous name of boondoggles.
We can see the transformation of boondoggle from private pastime to public waste in a New York Times article of April 4, 1935, with the headlines "$3,187,000 Relief is Spent to Teach Jobless to Play...'Boon Doggles' Made...Aldermen Find These Are Gadgets." An instructor in boondoggling explained to the city aldermen, "They may be making belts in leather, or maybe belts by weaving ropes, or it might be belts by working with canvas, maybe a tent or a sleeping bag. In other words, it is a chamber of horrors where boys perform crafts that are not designed for finesse and fine work, but simply a utility purpose."
Ever since, boondoggle has been the standard and indispensable epithet for purposeless and wasteful projects in government and business. Where the odd-sounding word came from no one knows, but it resembles extravagant inventions of the early nineteenth century like Sockdolager (1827). Perhaps only boondoggle is sufficiently outrageous for proper censure of an outrageous waste of time.
| Marine Corps Dictionary: Boondoggle |
Any situation in which the Marine gets more out of an assignment, job or situation than the Marine Corps. A good time at the Uncle's expense.
| Wikipedia: Boondoggle (project) |
A boondoggle is a project that wastes time and money. The term arose from a 1935 New York Times article that claimed over $3 million had been spent on recreational activities for the jobless as part of the New Deal. Among these activities were crafts classes, where the production of "boon doggles" (described in the article as various utilitarian "gadgets" made with cloth or leather) was taught.[1] The term's earlier definition is thought to have its origin in scouting, particularly in reference to a woggle.[2]
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One example of this was the RCA "SelectaVision" video disk system project, commenced in the early 1960s and allowed to drag on for nearly 20 years, long after cheaper and better alternatives had come to market. RCA were estimated to have spent about $750 million (1985 dollars) on this commercially useless system, which was one of the factors leading to its bankruptcy in 1988.
Another is the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic passenger aircraft. As with the SelectaVision system, although actual planes were built and regular services maintained for decades, the income from this has barely made a dent in the actual cost of the project[citation needed]. In this case, by the early 1970s it had already become painfully obvious that the advantages of supersonic flight were going to be nowhere near enough to compete with the low fares made possible by slower but much more cost-effective aircraft[citation needed].
The Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand involved an extremely long planning cycle, cost overruns, allegations of corruption, and, when opened, was criticized for its poor construction. This led one Thailand commentator to label it the "Suvarnabhoondoggle" (Golden Boondoggle).[3]
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Did you mean: boondoggle, Boondoggle (Rock Band, '90s), Boondoggle (1994 Album by The Lucksmiths), The Boondoggle: The Waltons (TV Episode) (1975 Drama TV Episode)
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Business Dictionary. Dictionary of Business Terms. Copyright © 2000 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Word Origin. America in So Many Words, by David K.Barnhart and Allan A. Metcalf. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Marine Corps Dictionary. Copyright © 2003 "Unofficial Dictionary for Marines" compiled and edited by Glenn B. Knight Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Boondoggle (project)". Read more |
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