carry coals to Newcastle: meaning & examples

Meanings:

• 1.

  UKEnglish (general)formalidiomatic
  • To do something redundant or superfluous by bringing or supplying to a place something that is already abundant there.
  • To perform an unnecessary or pointless action because the recipient already has or produces a surplus of the item in question.

  Examples

  Beta

  • Bringing sand to the beach is like carrying coals to Newcastle; it’s completely unnecessary.

    Traer arena a la playa es como llevar carbón a Newcastle; es completamente innecesario.

  • Trying to sell oranges in Florida feels like carrying coals to Newcastle since the state grows plenty.

    Intentar vender naranjas en Florida se siente como llevar carbón a Newcastle ya que el estado produce muchas.

  • He realized he was carrying coals to Newcastle when he offered his expertise to the top experts in the field.

    Se dio cuenta de que estaba llevando carbón a Newcastle cuando ofreció su experiencia a los mejores expertos del campo.