[See LIP sb. 6 a (b).] Labor of the lips. a. Empty talk; esp. vain repetition of words in prayer. Also attrib.
1538. Bale, Thre Lawes, 1140. No Sabboth wyl we with Gods worde sanctyfye, But with lyppe labour, and ydle ceremonye.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 235. Those heathenish repetitions and unnatural lip-labours which our Saviour censured.
1641. Arminian Nunnery, in R. Brunne’s Chron. (1810), I. App. Pref. 130. A lip-labour devotion, and a will-worship.
a. 1642. Sir W. Monson, Naval Tracts, II. (1704), 286/2. They will think it a little Lip-labour for their Tongues to pronounce it.
1679. ‘Tom Ticklefoot,’ Trial Wakeman, 6. Marshal not being shye of his lip-labour, fell to impertinent questioning him.
1732. Law, Serious C., x. (ed. 2), 152. They [our Prayers] become an empty lip-labour.
1788–92. T. Scott, Comm., Pract. Obs. on Eccl. v. 1. Our wandering imaginations … render our attendance on divine ordinances little better than a mere lip-labor.
† b. Kissing. Obs.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, etc. (Arb.), 145. Syth mye nose owtpeaking, good syr, your liplabor hindreth, Hardlye ye may kisse mee, where no such gnomon apeereth.
1665. Brathwait, Comment. Two Tales, 17. They express their mutual love in Lip-labour.
Hence † Lip-labo(u)ring = LIP-LABOUR; † Lip-laborious a., given to lip-labor.
1549. Latimer, Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 124. Many talke of prayer, and make it a lyplabourynge. Ibid., 132. It is no prayer that is wythout fayth, it is but a lyppe labouring.
1630. Lord, Hist. Banians, xiii. 86. The Bramanes grew hypocriticall and lip-laborious.
