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Definition 2024


bring_owls_to_Athens

bring owls to Athens

English

Verb

bring owls to Athens (third-person singular simple present brings owls to Athens, present participle bringing owls to Athens, simple past and past participle brought owls to Athens)

  1. (idiomatic) To undertake a pointless venture, one that is redundant, unnecessary, superfluous, or highly uneconomical.
    • Who brings owls to Athens? — Euelpides, in Aristophanes' Birds (English translation by Ian Johnston)
    • Forgive me, then, for bringing owls to Athens as a thanks-offering. — Goethe, in a letter to Wilhelm von Humboldt (English translation by Louis H. Gray)
    • Perhaps we have not been sufficiently aware that talking about access and its implications in Scandinavia is like bringing owls to Athens. — Herbert Burkert ()

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