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Practice what you preach

Cultural  
  1. Do yourself what you advise others to do.


practice what you preach Idioms  
  1. Behave as you would have others behave, as in You keep telling us to clean up, but I wish you'd practice what you preach. This idiom expresses an ancient idea but appeared in this precise form only in 1678. Also see do as I say.


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“In a perfect world, you’d practice what you preach with your own funds,” Maviglio said.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 17, 2023

It’s a bit of practice what you preach for Monken, who has pledged to give Jackson more control in the huddle and at the line of scrimmage than he had with predecessor Greg Roman.

From Washington Times • Jun. 14, 2023

Here is an instance when it is wrong to practice what you preach.

From Washington Post • Aug. 16, 2022

You talk that good stuff on TV, but you don’t practice what you preach.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 7, 2015

Ah, that is easy enough to say, but—wait until you are where I am now, and I think you will find it lots harder to practice what you preach.

From The Lilac Lady by Brown, Ruth Alberta