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box-ticking

British  

noun

  1. derogatory the process of satisfying bureaucratic administrative requirements rather than assessing the actual merit of something

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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Making transparency less about box-ticking and more about truly informing investors would be a real step forward.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026

“I don’t think he’s just trying to compile a kind of box-ticking collection of vintage classics just as an ownership project. He loves the chase and he loves the romance and the stories.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2025

However, she said that looking at images of the new structure, the platform seemed to be a "box-ticking exercise rather than an enhancement".

From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2025

Then they might tackle what is perhaps the problem of world premieres: that, as brief curtain-raisers unrelated to the rest of a concert, they tend to just read as perfunctory exercises in box-ticking.

From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2023

Some authors and publishers engage sensitivity readers as a box-ticking exercise and ignore the issues they raise.

From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2022

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