Meaning of mission creep | Babel Free

Definitions

Gradual unplanned expansion of the objectives, scope, and/or cost of a project, especially a military mission.

idiomatic, uncountable

Examples

“Initially presented as a purely humanitarian mission, Operation Restore Hope gradually shifted from feeding Somalis to fighting them. Unaware of the "mission creep," the public was outraged when 18 U.S. soldiers died in an October 1993 fire fight.”

“General John Shalikashvili . . . said it was important to set a target date of one year and then bring the troops home, because "in the absence of that, you find yourself staying there, and that's how very often mission creep comes in."”

“The risks of mission creep and a deepening quagmire leading to nation-building would arise only if ownership of the uprising was appropriated from the Libyans by the West, as would happen with ground troops.”

“A good stand-and-stir cooking show is to the Food Network as the music video is to MTV: ancient relics of both institutions' respective original purposes, before mission creep led them to trashy reality competition programming — apparently the entropic end-stage of all TV.”

CEFR level