Meaning & use
paying lip service
Last updated
“paying lip service” is a form of “pay lip service”.
Meaning
phraseidiomdisapproving
Saying that you support or respect something without actually doing anything to show it.
Grammar: Used as a verb phrase; the object follows "to": paying lip service to equality. The base form is "pay lip service."
Patterns
- paying lip service to something
- pay lip service to something
The company claims to care about the environment, but it is just paying lip service to green policies.
Politicians keep paying lip service to education reform without funding any real changes.
Word forms
| base form | pay lip service |
|---|---|
| third person singular | pays lip service |
| past tense | paid lip service |
| past participle | paid lip service |
Common combinations
- paying lip service to
- They are only paying lip service to the idea of fairness.
- just paying lip service
- He is just paying lip service to the team's needs.
- accused of paying lip service
- The government was accused of paying lip service to human rights.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tokenism
- Tokenism is the practice of doing something small to appear fair; it is a noun, while "paying lip service" is a verb phrase.
- empty rhetoric
- Empty rhetoric refers to impressive-sounding words with no real effect; it focuses on the words, not the act of pretending to support.
Opposites
Word family
- lip service noun
- The noun inside the idiom; used in phrases like "give lip service to."
Commonly confused: paying lip service or paying a lip service?
paying lip service vs paying a lip service
The idiom does not take "a"; say "paying lip service to something."
Practice
Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Choose one answer.
The idiom is "pay lip service to something," so "to" is the correct preposition. "For," no preposition, and "on" do not fit the fixed phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “paying lip service”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.