all talk (and no action)

Said of one who talks a lot about something that one has not actually done, or will not actually do. She may brag about donating money to the school, but I know she's all talk and no action. Oh, he's all talk—he's never had to face real danger.

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).