coals to Newcastle
coals to Newcastle noun: a pointless venture, in the sense of sending something to a place where it is made, or where they already have an abundance.
Noun
coals to Newcastle pl (plural only)
- A pointless venture, in the sense of sending something to a place where it is made, or where they already have an abundance.
- No more coals to Newcastle, no more Hoares to Paris.1935, attributed to King George V of the United Kingdom but possibly a then-circulating joke (see notes at Wikiquote)
- Honestly, sir. Your wife? Assertion training? Coals to Newcastle, surely.1998 May 6, Douglas Watkinson et al., “Death in Disguise”, in Midsomer Murders
- Synonyms:
- owls to Athens
coals to Newcastle meaning in Bengali
coals to Newcastle in Bengali
- একটি নিরর্থক উদ্যোগ
Synonyms of coals to Newcastle
- owls to Athens
Origin of coals to Newcastle
From the importance of Newcastle upon Tyne to the English coal industry.
Questions about coals to Newcastle
- What does coals to Newcastle mean?
- Coals to Newcastle means a pointless venture, in the sense of sending something to a place where it is made, or where they already have an abundance.
- What is coals to Newcastle in Bengali?
- Coals to Newcastle in Bengali is একটি নিরর্থক উদ্যোগ. See Coals to Newcastle meaning in Bengali.
- What part of speech is coals to Newcastle?
- Coals to Newcastle is a noun.
Words near coals to Newcastle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: coals to Newcastle (page history and authors); coals to Newcastle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-coals to Newcastle.ogg.
Cite this entry: “coals to Newcastle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coals_to_newcastle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
