Definition of "lip service" []

• Verbal expression of agreement or allegiance, unsupported by real conviction or action; hypocritical respect: "Lip service continues to be paid to resolving regional conflicts, but there is no sense of urgency” ( Henry A. Kissinger). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "English judicial theory on the binding force of ratio decidendi emphasize the liberty of judges to disregard the views of their predecessors, though they may pay lip service to precedent."
• "Civil-society advocates of CSR increasingly accuse firms of merely paying lip service to the idea of good corporate citizenship."
• "“Certain agencies paid lip service to integration just because they thought it was what the clients wanted,” says Robert Gray, managing director of Mercier Gray.16"