all talk (and no action)

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Idioms and Phrases

Much discussion but no action or results, as in Don't count on Mary's help—she's all talk , or Dave has been saying for months that he'll get a summer job, but he's all talk and no action . This idiom may have begun life as all talk and no cider , which Washington Irving cited as an American proverb in Salmagundi (1807). However, similar sayings antedate it by many years—for example, “The greatest talkers are always the least doers” (John Ray, English Proverbs , 1670).

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Gillian and Pete Brisley, who live in South Wales, say they’ve tried to engage authorities in the United Kingdom to assist, but describe “all talk and no action.”

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“Turns out they want all talk and no action. It turns out border security is not a risk to our national security. It’s just a talking point for the election.”

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Campaigner Greta Thunberg has said these UN climate summits are just "blah, blah, blah" - meaning all talk and no action.

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And we should have learned by now that early assessments of Trump as all talk and no action were very wrong.

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And she’s warning her colleagues that voters won’t forgive them for being all talk and no action.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

all systems go all-terrain bike

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