Word.ws English Dictionary

malicious compliance

malicious compliance noun: 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.

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.

Questions about malicious compliance

What does malicious compliance mean?
Malicious compliance means 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.
What part of speech is malicious compliance?
Malicious compliance is a noun.

Words near malicious compliance in the dictionary

  1. malices
  2. malicide
  3. malicides
  4. malicing
  5. malicious
  6. malicious compliance
  7. malicious mischief
  8. malicious prosecution
  9. malicious prosecutions
  10. maliciously
  11. maliciousness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: malicious compliance (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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