See talk is cheap on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "The expression first appears c. 1783 in the play All pleas'd at last.",
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"expansion": "talk is cheap",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1915, Jack London, chapter 2, in The Star-Rover:",
"text": "Cecil Winwood accepted the test. He claimed that he could dope the guards the night of the break. “Talk is cheap,” said Long Bill Hodge. “What we want is the goods. Dope one of the guards to-night.”",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"It is easy to make boastful or unrealistic statements which are not supported by actions or evidence."
],
"id": "en-talk_is_cheap-en-proverb-J8yeYvho",
"links": [
[
"easy",
"easy"
],
[
"boastful",
"boastful"
],
[
"unrealistic",
"unrealistic"
],
[
"statement",
"statement"
],
[
"support",
"support"
],
[
"action",
"action"
],
[
"evidence",
"evidence"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) It is easy to make boastful or unrealistic statements which are not supported by actions or evidence."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "actions speak louder than words"
},
{
"word": "fine words butter no parsnips"
},
{
"word": "money talks, bullshit walks"
},
{
"word": "put one's money where one's mouth is"
},
{
"word": "talk the talk"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "ary",
"lang": "Arabic",
"note": "الهدرة ما تشري خضرة (el-hadra ma tašri ḵuḍra, literally “talk does not buy vegetables”)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"tags": [
"Moroccan-Arabic"
]
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "说着容易做着难"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "puhe on halpaa"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "c’est facile de parler"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "un con qui marche va plus loin qu’un intellectuel assis"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"note": "αλλού τα κακαρίσματα κι αλλού γεννούν οι κότες (alloú ta kakarísmata ki alloú gennoún oi kótes, literally “squawking is somewhere and hens lay [eggs] somewhere else”)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "si fa presto a parlare"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"note": "口では大阪の城も建つ (kuchi de wa Ōsaka no shiro mo tatsu, literally “by mouth even a castle in Ōsaka is built”)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions"
},
{
"code": "lv",
"lang": "Latvian",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"tags": [
"vulgar"
],
"word": "gudri dirst nav malku cirst"
},
{
"code": "lmo",
"lang": "Lombard",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"tags": [
"Western"
],
"word": "se fa a svelta a parlà"
},
{
"code": "mi",
"lang": "Maori",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "he kōrero i pahawa"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "falar é fácil"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "болта́ть — не мешки́ воро́чать (boltátʹ — ne meškí voróčatʹ)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "пизде́ть — не мешки́ воро́чать (pizdétʹ — ne meškí voróčatʹ, literally “speaking is not moving sacks”)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"tags": [
"vulgar"
]
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "хва́стать — не коси́ть, спина́ не боли́т (xvástatʹ — ne kosítʹ, spiná ne bolít, literally “bragging is not mowing, [and] the back does not hurt”)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions"
},
{
"code": "srn",
"lang": "Sranan Tongo",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "a no babariman e broko pranasi"
}
]
}
],
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"word": "talk is cheap"
}
{
"etymology_text": "The expression first appears c. 1783 in the play All pleas'd at last.",
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"expansion": "talk is cheap",
"name": "en-proverb"
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],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "proverb",
"related": [
{
"word": "actions speak louder than words"
},
{
"word": "fine words butter no parsnips"
},
{
"word": "money talks, bullshit walks"
},
{
"word": "put one's money where one's mouth is"
},
{
"word": "talk the talk"
}
],
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1915, Jack London, chapter 2, in The Star-Rover:",
"text": "Cecil Winwood accepted the test. He claimed that he could dope the guards the night of the break. “Talk is cheap,” said Long Bill Hodge. “What we want is the goods. Dope one of the guards to-night.”",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"It is easy to make boastful or unrealistic statements which are not supported by actions or evidence."
],
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],
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"boastful",
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"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) It is easy to make boastful or unrealistic statements which are not supported by actions or evidence."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
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"translations": [
{
"code": "ary",
"lang": "Arabic",
"note": "الهدرة ما تشري خضرة (el-hadra ma tašri ḵuḍra, literally “talk does not buy vegetables”)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"tags": [
"Moroccan-Arabic"
]
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "说着容易做着难"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "puhe on halpaa"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "c’est facile de parler"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "un con qui marche va plus loin qu’un intellectuel assis"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"note": "αλλού τα κακαρίσματα κι αλλού γεννούν οι κότες (alloú ta kakarísmata ki alloú gennoún oi kótes, literally “squawking is somewhere and hens lay [eggs] somewhere else”)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "si fa presto a parlare"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"note": "口では大阪の城も建つ (kuchi de wa Ōsaka no shiro mo tatsu, literally “by mouth even a castle in Ōsaka is built”)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions"
},
{
"code": "lv",
"lang": "Latvian",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"tags": [
"vulgar"
],
"word": "gudri dirst nav malku cirst"
},
{
"code": "lmo",
"lang": "Lombard",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"tags": [
"Western"
],
"word": "se fa a svelta a parlà"
},
{
"code": "mi",
"lang": "Maori",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "he kōrero i pahawa"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "falar é fácil"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "болта́ть — не мешки́ воро́чать (boltátʹ — ne meškí voróčatʹ)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "пизде́ть — не мешки́ воро́чать (pizdétʹ — ne meškí voróčatʹ, literally “speaking is not moving sacks”)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"tags": [
"vulgar"
]
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "хва́стать — не коси́ть, спина́ не боли́т (xvástatʹ — ne kosítʹ, spiná ne bolít, literally “bragging is not mowing, [and] the back does not hurt”)",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions"
},
{
"code": "srn",
"lang": "Sranan Tongo",
"sense": "it is easy to make boastful statements which are not supported by actions",
"word": "a no babariman e broko pranasi"
}
],
"word": "talk is cheap"
}
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (05fdf6b and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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