Idiom idiom
weaponized incompetence
Meaning
A behavioral tactic where a person intentionally pretends to be incapable or performs tasks poorly in order to avoid responsibility and shift the workload to others.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He uses weaponized incompetence to avoid doing the dishes.”
“She realized her partner was using weaponized incompetence when he claimed he could not figure out how to operate the washing machine.”
“By feigning total confusion during every collaborative project, the colleague practiced a subtle form of weaponized incompetence that effectively offloaded his responsibilities onto the rest of the team.”
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026