carry coals to Newcastle
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Newcastle upon Tyne (in England) was a major coal-exporting city, so sending coal there would be pointless.
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
carry coals to Newcastle (third-person singular simple present carries coals to Newcastle, present participle carrying coals to Newcastle, simple past and past participle carried coals to Newcastle)
- (idiomatic) To do something that is unneeded or redundant.
- Synonym: bring owls to Athens
- 1851, Herman Melville, chapter 81, in Moby-Dick:
- 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.
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter II, in Jeeves in the Offing:
- He's the fellow who likes to let off stink bombs in night clubs, which rather falls under the head of carrying coals to Newcastle […]
Coordinate terms
Translations
do something unneeded or redundant
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See also
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