"malicious compliance" meaning in English

See malicious compliance in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} malicious compliance (uncountable)
  1. The behavior of strictly following the orders of a superior despite knowing that compliance will lead to a negative result, especially in a way that undermines the order's intent while following it to the letter. Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-malicious_compliance-en-noun-phCOyqFh Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "malicious compliance (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The behavior of strictly following the orders of a superior despite knowing that compliance will lead to a negative result, especially in a way that undermines the order's intent while following it to the letter."
      ],
      "id": "en-malicious_compliance-en-noun-phCOyqFh",
      "links": [
        [
          "order",
          "order"
        ],
        [
          "superior",
          "superior"
        ],
        [
          "compliance",
          "compliance"
        ],
        [
          "negative",
          "negative"
        ],
        [
          "result",
          "result"
        ],
        [
          "undermine",
          "undermine"
        ],
        [
          "intent",
          "intent"
        ],
        [
          "to the letter",
          "to the letter"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "malicious compliance"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "malicious compliance (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The behavior of strictly following the orders of a superior despite knowing that compliance will lead to a negative result, especially in a way that undermines the order's intent while following it to the letter."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "order",
          "order"
        ],
        [
          "superior",
          "superior"
        ],
        [
          "compliance",
          "compliance"
        ],
        [
          "negative",
          "negative"
        ],
        [
          "result",
          "result"
        ],
        [
          "undermine",
          "undermine"
        ],
        [
          "intent",
          "intent"
        ],
        [
          "to the letter",
          "to the letter"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "malicious compliance"
}

Download raw JSONL data for malicious compliance meaning in English (0.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.