0 a small square on a paper form where you can put a tick to show that you want something or that something is correct or has been dealt with: --
1 used to refer to a way of doing things that involves following rules or instructions that are the same in every case, with no possibility of someone using their own knowledge or ability to make decisions: --
It was an easy exam, with lots of tick-box multiple-choice questions.
"Performance management tends to be a bureaucratic, tick box approach," she said.
This legislation encourages a tick-box mentality.
3 a small box on a computer screen that you click on to show a choice, to open or close a file, etc.: --
There was a tick-box immigration questionnaire, but it had no space for him to explain his status.
We are in an age of short-term mechanistic tick-box government.
The stereotype of diversity training is a tick-box exercise aimed at managers.
She said that it would be wrong to have a tick-box approach to sentencing criminals.
Universities have reported applications from care leavers more than doubling since Ucas introduced its tick box.