whack-a-mole
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A problem that keeps appearing after being solved
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
vấn đề liên tục xuất hiện sau khi được giải quyết
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: hitting a mole in a game
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The company is playing whack-a-mole with their software issues
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “whack-a-mole” mean?
A problem that keeps appearing after being solved Literally: hitting a mole in a game
Is “whack-a-mole” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.