go through the motions
informal disapprovingC2 to do something without thinking it is very important or having much interest in it:
He says he's been investigating my complaint, but I feel he's just going through the motions.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Faking & pretending
- a wolf in sheep's clothing idiom
- affect
- assume
- believe
- bluff
- changeling
- charlatan
- falsify
- feign
- fraud
- guise
- impostor
- play at sth
- play possum idiom
- play sth out
- play-acting
- pose as sb
- professed
- purport
- quack
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