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A lick and a promise

Meaning

A cursory effort, for instance at painting or tidying up. It alludes to the perfunctory washing performed by children.

Origin

This is colloquial English and is first recorded in print in Walter White's All round the Wrekin, 1860:

"We only gives the cheap ones a lick and a promise."

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The meaning and origin of the expression: A lick and a promise

A lick and a promise

Meaning

Origin