carry coals to newcastle

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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..

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

carrot and stickcarry one's weightcarry offcarry oncarry one's own weightcarpe diem crascare forcarry outcare packagecare forcarry oncarry oneselfcarry a torch forcarry on

How to pronounce this phrase?

  1. Alex
    Alex
    US English
    Daniel
    Daniel
    British
    Karen
    Karen
    Australian
    Veena
    Veena
    Indian

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