by committee
2
4.1
- idiom
:
por comité
- The Bush White House responded that it "didn't recognize" the group because it would lead to deciding war "by committee."
And a summary of the science then gets basically created by committee.
- And a summary of the science then gets basically created by committee.
- And so the studio, it's, it's more kind of decision by committee now.
Examples
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When you think about decision making, how often are decisions made by committees in the companies you run versus made by individuals?
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You have agreement, and all the decisions are made by committee as to what is relevant.
Blog text (13) -
Have you heard the saying that it's difficult to make a decision by committee?
Blog text (9) -
Selections were made by committee on the basis of its judgment and ranking of potential leadership ability and application components.
Academic text (1991) -
They are written by committee, and I don't think either the author or the reader/listener understands or believes a word of them.
Blog text (19) -
After reading how American Airlines struggles with the all-too-common problem of "design by committee" (which exists within many large organizations), I have to conclude that getting your website to completely satisfy business, brand, and user goals is still elusive for many companies.
Blog text (19) -
Decisions about the new project will be made by committee to ensure everyone's input is considered.
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The new policies were developed by committee, reflecting the diverse opinions of all stakeholders.
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Changes to the curriculum were agreed upon by committee to incorporate feedback from teachers and parents.
Synonyms
3
4.1
In a way that a group of people share or use something together
Antonyms
How Collective
Surface Forms
Morphology
by + committee
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from the preposition 'by' indicating agency or means combined with 'committee' meaning a group — together signaling that something is done collectively. This agentive construction (e.g., 'made by X') is a common, cross-linguistic pattern and would be readily understandable to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
By committee comes from the image of a group of people, a committee, all working on the same plan and making many small changes. When many people add bits and change things, the result often becomes cautious or full of compromises, so it now means 'decided together' or 'developed by a group'.