Phrase Finder

Lip service

Posted by ESC June 11, 2003In reply to Lip service posted by Saxon on June 10, 2003

Can you please tell me the origin of this phrase? Thank you,
Saxon

This source says it's from the Bible.

LIP SERVICE - "Insincere respect, expressed with the lips but not acted upon. 'This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.' Matthew 15:8." From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable revised by Adrian Room (HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, 1999, Sixteenth Edition).

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