dilbert
(DIL.burt)
v.
To cause a person to become bored or cynical about work.
Example Citation:
Can you imagine efficient private companies still working only with paper? How many man-hours must be dilberted away? How many delays? How many errors—or flat-out frauds?
—Editorial, "Man vs. Machine The old world meets the new," The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, March 27, 2002
Earliest Citation:
It's been weeks since the article "La Salle Blues" appeared in this column and my e-mail is still drowning with messages exploding with reactions ranging from the angry to the asinine, amusing to the assholic. . . . The humorous ripple originally calculated to tickle some mirth into the office ennui of the Dilberted instead unleashed a vituperous tsunami.
—Argee Guevarra, "Future Tense," BusinessWorld, February 9, 1998
Notes:
This verb arises from a grammatical shift of the name of the Dilbert comic strip and/or its eponymous main character. The early citations for this new sense only quoted the definition, usually as part of some lame "figuring out geekspeak" article.
