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

• lip server
  noun

Etymology

Origin of lip service

First recorded in 1635–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lip service

The two sides played nice in the heady days of 2025, when the midterms were far enough off in the distance and everyone was willing to pay lip service to Piker’s more exotic ideas.

From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2026

Kennedy has paid lip service to the value of the MMR vaccine, which combines immunizations for measles, mumps and rubella.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026

He told the three-judge panel that the court must not pay "lip service" to human rights, adding that the right to criticise state organs is protected by China's constitution.

From Barron's ● May 18, 2026

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

We had no paid organizers, no staff, and a membership that did little more than pay lip service to our cause.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela