Idiom
lip service
Meaning
Promising but empty talk; words without action or intention.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The manager paid lip service to our concerns.”
“The company pays lip service to environmental issues but never actually recycles anything.”
“Politicians often pay lip service to reform while quietly protecting the interests that fund their campaigns.”
Examples
simple
“The manager paid lip service to our concerns.”
contextual
“The company pays lip service to environmental issues but never actually recycles anything.”
complex
“Politicians often pay lip service to reform while quietly protecting the interests that fund their campaigns.”
Origin
First use appears c. 1590, in A Treatise against Witchcraft by Henry Holland. Compare earlier lip-labour.
Key words
Related idioms
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