moving the goalposts

The act of redefining the conditions for victory or completion of a task, either when the original conditions for achieving them were met or whilst the person or group is busy working to achieve the current conditions, in order to prevent them from succeeding. Usually done with malice by a superior or peer looking to exclude or remove people from a group by portraying them as incompetent of not completing the task they keep altering.

When Jake was close to finishing his training, his supervisor who had always hated him started moving the goalposts by claiming that Jake needed four references of work experience instead of two in order to graduate, a condition that nobody else had to meet and with only one day left for the deadline. Jake didn't pass.

moving the goalposts by thejimler May 5, 2015

moving the goalposts

A fancy way of saying sabotage of what somebody is trying to get done, fucking with someone's life.

The dork would always start moving the goalposts whenever she started to get eaten alive at the game she created.

moving the goalposts by The Original Agahnim November 11, 2021