a camel is a horse designed by a committee
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.57 in modern English
55
Scrabble Score
34
Letters
6
Syllables
16
Unique Chars
Meaning
proverb
Too many people on one project can spoil it by having conflicting or inexperienced ideas.
Example Sentences
- "A camel is a horse designed by a committee, so we hope that this committee will—and I think it will—function appropriately."
- "And we all know the saying, which is true as well as witty, that a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee."
- "If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, what is a materials policy statement prepared by seven study teams?"
- "Whoever concluded that a camel is a horse designed by a committee could have similar thoughts about taxicabs."
- ""A camel," it has been said, "is a horse designed by committee." This might sound like a telling example of the terrible deficiencies of committee decisions, but it is really much too mild an indictment."
- ""This is a presidential address, Andrea, not a camel (...) A camel! A horse built by committee!" (Toby Ziegler)"
Etymology
The distinguishing features of a camel, like its humps, plate-shaped feet, habitual spitting, strange shape and poor temperament, can be seen as the sort of deformities that typify the sort of ideas that committees come up with that make projects bad.
Inflected Forms
a camel is a horse designed by committee (alternative)
a camel is a horse made by a committee (alternative)
a camel is a horse made by committee (alternative)