lip service

noun
1.
insincere expression of friendship, admiration, support, etc.; service by words only:
He paid only lip service to the dictator.
Origin
1635-45
Related forms
lip server, noun
Examples from the web for lip service
  • Senior management pays lip service to cost but generally leaves the solutions to human resources.
  • In modern war a complicated lip service is still paid to the principle of discrimination.
  • Spirituality despite the lip service in our public forum is not widely valued.
  • They are well-tested, highly effective voluntary measures that we've merely paid lip service to for the last decade and a half.
  • Not so in fashion, where much lip service but little money is paid to radical originality.
  • Crews fails to pay even lip service to the good our book has done.
  • Focus only on the happy parts, and pay the rest little lip service.
  • And now that greed was good, some felt the notion of service barely received lip service.
  • What's really cool, and it really is true-it's not lip service-is that our little group has really managed to stay together.
  • Now they are wondering if what the university's president said was little more than lip service.
British Dictionary definitions for lip service

lip service

noun
1.
insincere support or respect expressed but not put into practice
Word Origin and History for lip service
n.

"something proffered but not performed," 1640s, from lip (n.) + service (n.1). Earlier in same sense was lip-labour (1530s).

lip service in Culture

lip service definition


Insincere agreement; to “pay lip service” is to consent in one's words while dissenting in one's heart: “The boss's support of affirmative action was merely paying lip service; he never committed himself to it in any substantial way.”

Slang definitions & phrases for lip service

lip service

noun

Insincere expression of friendship, admiration, agreement, support, etc: lip service for the volunteers


Idioms and Phrases with lip service

lip service

Verbal but insincere expression of agreement or support. It is often put as pay or give lip service, as in They paid lip service to holding an election next year, but they had no intention of doing so. [ Mid-1600s ]