zombie institution

Noun

zombie institution (plural zombie institutions)

1. Synonym of zombie business.
   • The problem is aggravated even further by the absence of any reliable mechanism to close down zombie institutions before they can inflict too much damage on other parties.1993, Kevin Dowd, Laissez Faire Banking, page 301
   • I do not think that any major U.S. bank is currently a zombie institution. They are all lending, they are all active, and they are all viable.2010, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Budget, Economic and Budget Challenges for the Short and Long Term, page 27

   Synonyms:

   zombie business

2. Synonym of zombie organization.
   • In my youth, sad to say, my closest encounter with a zombie institution seemed to be the Department of Motor Vehicles, where employees dulled by low expectations slowly and sullenly served frustrated citizens under pallid fluorescent lights.2013, Andy Crouch, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, page 199
   • That is what it is like to learn in a zombie institution: thinking long-gone, and only the admin jobs remaining.2017, Sinead Murphy, Zombie University: Thinking Under Control

   Synonyms:

   zombie organization

3. An institution (custom or practice) that has lost its relevance or meaning.
   • In the words of Ulrich Beck, the church may be considered another example of a 'zombie institution', like family, class and neighborhood.2007, Heinz Streib, Religion Inside and Outside Traditional Institutions, page 183
   • These statistics are, for some, indicative of how processes of detraditionalization and individualization have made marriage a "zombie” institution.2009, Jodi O'Brien, Encyclopedia of Gender and Society, page 2
4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see zombie, institution.
   • Trying to orient the self that my ass was busy trying to save as it hauled me through the corridors of this bloody zombie institution .2020, Albert Aykler, Just Say Zombie: A Pre-Apocalypse Madhouse Zombie Novel