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Showing results for box-ticking. Search instead for Lock+Picking.

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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

Right now in France, he told me, policing has become a box-ticking exercise of showing how many people each officer detains for questioning - to demonstrate he or she is working hard.

From BBC • Jul. 2, 2023

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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