Idiom
carry coals to Newcastle
Meaning
To do something that is unneeded or redundant.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Bringing extra food to a feast is like carrying coals to Newcastle.”
“Offering advice to an expert on their own subject is just carrying coals to Newcastle.”
“By attempting to lecture the seasoned historian on the nuances of the revolution, the student was merely carrying coals to Newcastle.”
Examples
simple
“Bringing extra food to a feast is like carrying coals to Newcastle.”
contextual
“Offering advice to an expert on their own subject is just carrying coals to Newcastle.”
complex
“By attempting to lecture the seasoned historian on the nuances of the revolution, the student was merely carrying coals to Newcastle.”
Origin
Newcastle upon Tyne (in England) was a major coal-exporting city, so sending coal there would be pointless.
Key words
Related idioms
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