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carry coals to newcastle

To do something that is unneeded or redundant.

Etymology:

  • Newcastle upon Tyne was a major coal -exporting city, so sending coal there would be pointless.
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“

1851 However curious it may seem for an oil-ship to be borrowing oil on the whale-ground, and however much it may invertedly contradict the old proverb about carrying coals to Newcastle, yet sometimes such a thing really happens; and in the present case Captain Derick De Deer did indubitably conduct a lamp-feeder as Flask did declare. — Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 81..

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Submitted on September 01, 2009

Additional definitions for 'carry coals to newcastle':

Carry Coals to NewcastleTo bring extra, to do anything pointless and needless
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Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to carry coals to newcastle

carry overcarry oneselfcarry a tunecarry a torch forcarry offcarry one's weightcarry oncarry oncarry oncarry outcarry outcarry oncarry oneselfcarry off

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    "carry coals to newcastle." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 3 Oct. 2023. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/carry-coals-to-newcastle_2771>.

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