talking shops
Industry insider conversations
Talking shops are forums or meetings where people discuss issues without taking action—the implication being that talk substitutes for results.
The phrase is mildly dismissive: The committee has become just another talking shop.
In British English, talking shop (singular) means discussing work matters in social settings: Let's not talk shop at dinner.
- lip serviceInsincere expression of agreement
- forumGathering place for discourse
- debateFormal argument on issues
- discussionExchange of ideas
- back and forthRepeated alternating movement
going in circles · conference · hot air · hot air balloon · symposium · tokenism · rubber stamp · red tape · parliament · assembly · jawboning · quango · meeting · bureaucracy · seminar · think tank · inefficiency · panels
talking shopsworking groups
Teams formed for projects
task forces · doers · agents of change · enforcers · boots on the ground
talking shopssmall talk
Polite trivial conversation
casual conversation · chitchat · idle chatter · shooting the breeze · gossip
talking, shop, talk, talks, talked, talker, talkers, shops, shopped