lip service
22
4.7
- noun
- /lɪp ˈsɜrvɪs/
- Informal
- Many politicians pay lip service to environmental issues without taking real action.
- pay lip service
- give lip service
- more than lip service
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Watch on YouTubeYou know, don't give me lip service.
- You know, don't give me lip service.
- So I, I could give you lip service, but but, but listen, I'm not going to be here unless these numbers look good, right?
- And then once the lip service was was over, you would get to very practical things, no problem with the administration anymore.
- You know, people pay lip service to trust.
- You could have demanded that countries would not be simply paying lip service to democratic procedures, but will will carry general reforms.
- What they do is pay lip service to the vagaries of a of a pretentious mission statement, which simply reeks of hypocrisy.
- This is not just, this is not something for radical chic white liberals to sort of pay lip service to.
- And quite frankly, a lot of companies pay purpose lip service because it's fashionable, right?
- It was just this lip service, you know, very monochromatic response from the YMCA.
Examples
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Consequently, much lip service is being paid to the effect that ours now is a multicultural society.
Academic text (1995) -
I think that most of my colleagues, and politicians in general, just pay lip service to one god or another.
Academic text (2008) -
And you can say, well, you know, you can live, give lip service to that, right?
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So yes, I think there is lot of lip service which is paid.
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So I think those are some real basic things that we give lip service to and we spend some effort on.
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You know, people pay lip service to trust.
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Employees know what top management really believes in and what they only pay lip service to.
Academic text (1994) -
Three participants noted that the subject seems to get lip service but minimal action.
Academic text (1995) -
Mankind pays lip service to peace.
-
All but the most repressive governments give lip service to the common notion of justice.
Blog text (2)
Synonyms
141
6.4
Pretending to have moral beliefs you do not follow
21
5.5
A person or thing that makes big promises but does not act
4
5.6
Not showing true feelings when you speak or act
4
7.2
The quality of seeming false and not sincere
Antonyms
How Sincere
3
3.5
335
2.8
239
3.6
- Informal
22
4.7
33
6.7
4
5.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
lip + service
The compound literally links 'lip' (associated with speech) and 'service' (support), so a learner can plausibly infer it refers to support expressed by words only. However, the critical pragmatic sense of insincerity or lack of real action is metaphorical and not fully predictable from the parts, making the expression only partially transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
Lip service comes from a clear image: someone only moves their lip to give service—they say they will help or agree but do nothing to back it up. That's why the phrase means 'insincere support' or 'support without real action'.