lip service

American  

noun

1. insincere expression of friendship, admiration, support, etc.; service by words only.

   He paid only lip service to the dictator.

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lip service British  

noun

1. insincere support or respect expressed but not put into practice

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lip service Cultural  

1. 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.”

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lip service Idioms  

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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• lip server
  noun

Etymology

Origin of lip service

First recorded in 1635–45

Example Sentences

Also, he noticed, the marketing he saw generally “paid only the visual equivalent of lip service to diversity,” with some exceptions.

From MarketWatch • May 8, 2026

It would be nice to see us actually celebrate the First Amendment instead of giving lip service to it.

From Salon • May 1, 2026

Fifty years of lip service to self-determination for Greenland doesn’t add up, if it ever did.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the cycle of "paying lip service to the potential of the North" had to end.

From BBC • Jan. 13, 2026

In my life, I’d heard plenty of empty words coming from important people, lip service paid during times of crisis with no action to follow.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama