Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to waste time; thus boondoggler, a loafer, a time waster; boondoggling, time-wasting.

1935		Detroit Free Press (MI) 28 July 6/2: The depression has produced no horror greater than the world ‘boondoggling’.
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 11 May [synd. col.] The hat-check Venuses at La Conga leaning out of the open windows there to flirt with the sidewalk boondogglers on 57th street.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: skylarking . . . boondoggling.
1952		W. Winchell On Broadway 4 Aug. [synd. col.] The Sales Executive Club of Pittsburgh offers this critique on Federal boondoggling [etc.].
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 136: The boondogglers in Washington built them Lockefield Gardens, a chichi Federal project.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 59: I lay claim to similar ownership of years passed, and the right to boondoggle while recounting them.
1987		J. Ciardi Good Words 309: Boondoggling. 1. Fussy, almost pointless, time-consuming hobby work.

2. (US black) to conduct an adulterous affair.

1936

D. Burley in Chicago Defender 2 May 23: [N]either can a husband keep up with the wife when she ‘boondoggles’ with the other man.