lick and a promise

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Dismissed foreign policy and foreign trade with a lick and a promise.

From Time Magazine Archive

Malachy whispers our wash was a lick and a promise, that’s what Mam would say.

From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt

I'll have things somewhere near shipshape by then, I guess, though the cleanin'll have to be mainly a lick and a promise until I can really get at it.

From Keziah Coffin by Lincoln, Joseph Crosby

There was no "lick and a promise" in Nan Sherwood's housekeeping.

From Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp or, the Old Lumberman's Secret by Carr, Annie Roe

To do anything partially, is to give it a lick and a promise, as in painting or blacking.—To lick, to surpass a rival, or excel him in anything.—Lick of the tar-brush, a seaman.

From The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc. by Belcher, Edward, Sir