0 an unnecessary and expensive piece of work, especially one that is paid for by the public:
1 an expensive program that is a waste of money, esp. one using public money:
Voters say they are fed up with such boondoggles.
2 an unnecessary and expensive piece of work, especially one paid for by the public:
Sadly, we are faced with yet another of the procedural boondoggles so often visited on us, and we cannot do that any more.
It is time that people who do not travel stopped having to pay for the boondoggles and beanos of those who do.
It started by saying: "this is no astronautic boondoggle", and it continued to say that the programmes would produce a number of highly valuable pay-offs.
It seems that in what is, after all, a vast boondoggle the spoils should be fairly shared among potential beneficiaries.
Is not saving energy and using the available money to improve energy efficiency in this place a far greater priority than spending money on the boondoggle of improving the kitchens?
This is no astronautic boondoggle.
Financially, the venture proved to be a boondoggle.
The city's strategies were not always successful; one particularly noted boondoggle saw substantial municipal funding given to a failed angora goat farm.