self-licking ice-cream cone

plural self-licking ice-cream cones

1. alternativeAlternative form of self-licking ice cream cone.

   They live in fortresses because they have been at war for centuries, and they’ve been at war for centuries because they live in fortresses. It’s a self-licking ice-cream cone.

   2014, Ron Capps, Seriously Not All Right: Five Wars in Ten Years, Tucson, Ariz.: Schaffner Press, →ISBN, page 121

   2 more examples

   In Hugh’s experience, Williams seemed to either simply repeat work that had already been done elsewhere in the chain of command or add redundant procedural steps to interject himself, almost like a self-licking ice-cream cone.

   2017, Alastair Luft, The Battle Within, Inkshares, →ISBN, page 8

   The G7 meetings and similar international gatherings had a rhyme and reason at one point in history, and at times do good work, but in many respects, they have simply become self-licking ice-cream cones. They’re there because they’re there.

   2020, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN