Parkinson's law
or Parkinson's Law
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noun
the statement, expressed facetiously as if a law of physics, that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.
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Origin of Parkinson's law
First recorded in 1950–55; after C. N. Parkinson
Words nearby Parkinson's law
Parkinson, parkinsonian, parkinsonism, Parkinson's disease, Parkinson's facies, Parkinson's law, Parkinson's syndrome, park keeper, parkland, Parkman, parkour
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
Example sentences from the Web for Parkinson's law
British Dictionary definitions for Parkinson's law
Parkinson's law
noun
the notion, expressed facetiously as a law of economics, that work expands to fill the time available for its completion
Word Origin for Parkinson's law
C20: named after C. N. Parkinson (1909–93), British historian and writer, who formulated it
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
Cultural definitions for Parkinson's law
Parkinson's Law
A law propounded by the twentieth-century British scholar C. Northcote Parkinson. It states, “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.