preach (redirected from preaches)

Practice what you preach.

Prov. Cliché You yourself should do the things you advise other people to do. Dad always told us we should only watch an hour of television every day, but we all knew he didn't practice what he preached.

See also: practice

preach about something

to give a moral or stern discourse on something. Please don't preach about the evils of fried food. I like the stuff, and people eat it all the time and don't die! She was preaching about the value of a fat-free diet.

preach against someone or something

to exhort against someone or something. The evangelist preached against the operator of the town's only saloon. The principal kept preaching against drinking and drugs.

See also: against

preach at someone

to lecture or moralize at someone. Don't preach at me! I don't need any of your moralizing. I really don't wish to be preached at.

preach to someone

to give a moral discourse to someone. Please don't preach to me. I know that I did wrong. When you preach to us like that, we don't pay any attention to you.

preach to the choir and preach to the converted

Fig. to make one's case primarily to one's supporters; to make one's case only to those people who are present or who are already friendly to the issues. There is no need to convince us of the value of hard work. We already know that. You are just preaching to the choir. Don't waste your time telling us about the problem. That's preaching to the choir. Bob found himself preaching to the converted when he was telling Jane the advantages of living in the suburbs. She already hates city life.

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practise what you preach  (British & Australian) also practice what you preach (American)

to do what you advise other people to do I would have more respect for him if he practised what he preaches.

preach to the converted

to try to persuade people to believe things they already believe (usually in continuous tenses) There's no need to tell us about the benefits of recycling. You're preaching to the converted.

See also: convert

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practice what you preach

to behave the way you tell other people to behave Other countries need to see that we practice what we preach when it comes to human rights. I practice what I preach in that I exercise almost every day.

See also: practice

preach to the choir

to talk about something with a group of people who already agree with you preach to the converted I realized that all I was doing was preaching to the choir - the men who really need to hear about this don't come to these groups.

preach to the converted

to talk about something with a group of people who already agree with you preach to the choir Many websites seem to only preach to the converted, but others attract all sorts of people.

See also: convert