empty threat

empty threat

A threat that is devoid of worth or meaning, one that cannot or was never intended to be carried out. The manager is always full of empty threats about docking our pay, but he'll never actually go through with it. Your students won't respect your authority if you only ever make empty threats. You know anything coming from Grandma is just an empty threat—she'd never actually punish us.

See also: empty, threat

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