cookie licking

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word cookie licking. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word cookie licking, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say cookie licking in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word cookie licking you have here. The definition of the word cookie licking will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofcookie licking, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Noun

cookie licking (uncountable)

  1. (chiefly technology) The act of claiming a project or idea for oneself, discouraging others from working on it, but then never finishing it.
    • 2009 December 1, Raymond Chen, “Microspeak: Cookie licking”, in The Old New Thing, archived from the original on 2024-10-02:
      Suppose there is a list of items to be done, say, tasks or projects or topics for investigation. Somebody signals interest in a particular project, thereby making it unavailable for others to work on. If the person never actually starts working on the project, then that person is accused of engaging in cookie licking.
    • 2011 October 10, Kris Dunn, “Attack of the Cookie-Lickers”, in CFO, archived from the original on 2024-03-01:
      Allow people to act out in those ways, and you're guaranteeing that more counterproductive cookie-licking ways will emerge as you promote talent through the ranks. Left unchecked, advanced cookie-licking could include the following organizational poison: []
    • 2018 August 12, Robert I. Sutton, “How Bosses Waste Their Employees’ Time”, in The Wall Street Journal, New York, N.Y.: Dow Jones & Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 August 2023:
      Another way that executives waste employees' time, slow the work and add to their own burdens is by "cookie licking," a term inspired by sneaky children who lick cookies to deter others from eating them.
    • 2021, Brad Stone, Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire, New York, N.Y. : Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 233:
      Several operations executives told me they were embarrassed by that stunt (which seven years later, had progressed no further than private tests). They used an old internal Microsoft term to describe it: "cookie licking," or the act of claiming to do something before you actually do it, in order to capture notoriety and prevent others from following.