VOCABULARY - IDIOMS

Pay lip service

Meaning:

an insincere loyalty, respect, or support for something

Examples:

  • It is not, however, good enough just to pay lip service to their work.
  • In addition, we should not merely pay lip service to the precautionary principle.
  • The work that the United Nations accomplishes, therefore, does not simply pay lip service to diversity.
  • Conservation is something that I hear on many occasions and a lot of people pay lip service to it.
  • We are the victims of almost invisible actions, usually concealed with remarks and statements that pay lip service to respect for the sovereignty and dignity of our country.
  • Recognition that tackling the internal causes of inequality is important, and many actors, including business and social movements, pay lip service to the need to decisively deal with it.
  • All too often, we just pay lip service to the concepts of the efficiency of the Union and of its institutions, bringing the Union closer to people, subsidiarity and democratic legitimacy; they are just clichés churned out in soap-box speeches.
  • You didn't even pay lip service to our friendship.
  • It is all too easy to pay lip service to human rights.
  • They must do more than pay lip service to peace.