move the goalposts

🌎Region: International 📊Difficulty Level:intermediate

💡Meaning

To unfairly change the rules or success criteria during a process, making it harder for others to meet the target.

🕰️Origin

From sports (especially football/soccer and rugby), where moving the goalposts would change where a team must score. Figuratively, it describes shifting standards after someone has acted.

📝Notes

Usually accusatory: it implies unfairness and shifting standards midstream (often deliberately). Common in work, negotiations, or evaluation contexts.

💬Examples

We agreed on the price, but now the seller is moving the goalposts and asking for more.
Every time I meet the target, my manager moves the goalposts and sets a higher one.
It’s hard to finish the project when the client keeps moving the goalposts midstream.
The committee moved the goalposts by changing the eligibility rules after applications were submitted.
If you keep moving the goalposts, no one will trust the process or the results.

📘Grammar & Usage Notes

Fixed phrase: most often used as "move the goalposts" (or "keep moving the goalposts"). Can be active or passive ("They moved the goalposts" / "The goalposts were moved"). Rarely singular.

🔗Synonyms

change the rules
shift the criteria
raise the bar (sometimes)
change the terms midstream

↔️Antonyms

stick to the rules
keep to the original terms
maintain the standard