Definition of "boondoggle" []

• An unnecessary or wasteful project or activity. (noun)
• A braided leather cord worn as a decoration especially by Boy Scouts. (noun)
• A cord of braided leather, fabric, or plastic strips made by a child as a project to keep busy. (noun)
• To waste time or money on a boondoggle. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "They missed a few but did better avoiding wasteful projects than FDR and the New Dealers in the era when the term boondoggle was coined."
• "The term boondoggle, in the sense of a project that wastes time and money, first appeared during the Great Depression in the 1930s, referring to the millions of jobs given to unemployed men and women to try to get the economy moving again, as part of the New Deal."
• "This boondoggle is a travesty to the American people."