mission creep

British

noun

the tendency for a task, esp a military operation, to become unintentionally wider in scope than its initial objectives

"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

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mission creep

And then of course there's the potential for future mission creep.

From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026

No one can disagree with Mr. Warsh on the Fed’s mission creep and on the multiplication of inconsistent objectives.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 8, 2026

When you really break down “Alien,” though, you get a riveting story about workplace inequality and the perils of mission creep.

From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2025

“The fact is, police technology constantly experiences mission creep — meaning equipment reserved only for specific or extreme circumstances ends up being used in increasingly everyday or casual ways,” wrote EFF policy analyst Matthew Guariglia.

From Washington Times ● Dec. 1, 2022

The term “quarantine” experienced mission creep in 2020, used for everything from closed-off hospital wards to healthy people working from home.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2021

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023