Meaning of "walk one's talk"

Question

While reading a book, I found a sentence which read, "If you want to be a good parent, you need to walk your talk."
It is difficult to understand the exact meaning of "walk your talk."
I couldn't find this phrase in dictionaries.
Could anybody explain this phrase?

DiamondKite · Accepted Answer

This means that you must commit to action what you have laid out while speaking. For example, if a mother says "I'm going to ground you for two weeks if you get near that swimming pool again!" then you really need to do what you said you would do - ground the child for getting near the swimming pool.

You will hear this expression quite often in urban colloquy.

The most common variation is: "You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" Most native speakers snicker at this because it has become so trite, but it's still in fairly common use.

Any threat you make while speaking or any bold declaration you make, you must "walk your talk" and do exactly as you said. Otherwise, you're going to be seen as hypocritical and inconsistent.

I hope that helps!

Buggah · Answer

I didn't know myself, but maybe this article I found on the Internet can help you as much as it did to me.

Can you walk the talk?
A talk about talks, and walks:

Everyone knows that there are two ways to talk. You can talk with your talk, which is a popular way to talk. People talk with this talk all the time, but when you talk with your talk, sometimes there is a problem. People do not listen to the talk that you talk, because of the other talk that you are talking. It is at this point in my talk that I introduce to you the other way to talk. You can talk with your talk, and most do, but when you talk the talk that you talk with your talk, you are also talking a talk that you do not talk with your talk, and that talk is the talk that your walk talks.

Everyone knows that your walk talks, it is not a new concept. If I walk a certain walk, then I talk a certain talk by walking that walk. These two “alks” are especially important when the talk that you are talking with your talk is about walking a walk. I mean what if the talk that I am talking is about walking a walk, but if the walk that I am walking is not the walk that I am talking, then there is a problem with my walky-talky. If I am going to talk a talk that talks other people into walking a walk, I must walk that same walk with my walk that I am talking about with my talking. If I talk one talk with my talk, and talk another talk with my walk, then no one will take the talk that I talk with my talk seriously, because the talk that I am walking and the talk that I am talking are not talking the same talk. Because, you see, your talk talks, and your walk talks, but your walk talks a louder talk than your talk talks. No one will be able to hear the talk that my talk is talking because of how loudly I am talking with my walk. And if my walk does not walk the same talk that my talk talks, then my talk and my walk are both talking bad talks. So if you want people to respect the talk that your talk talks, then you have to make the talk that your walk talks and the talk that your talk talks, talk the same talk.

As Christians, we cannot afford to talk talks and walk walks that are talking bad talks. But so often, we do just that. We talk one talk about walks with our talk, and talk a completely different talk with the walk that we are walking. We must make a special effort to make our walking and our talking talk the same talk. Since the talk that your walk talks is louder than the talk that your talk talks you must make the talk that your walk talks talk the same talk that your talk talks, and both the talk that your walk talks and the talk that your talk talks must talk the talk that *** has taught us to talk. Because no one likes it when you talk one talk and walk another talk, that’s when you talk out of both sides of your mouth. You must talk the talk and walk the walk that *** wants us to walk. And the only way to talk and walk that walk, is to walk with ***.

Read Wall, April 2, 2003

Anonymous · Answer

0 It is : if you are going to talk the walk you better walk the talk.02br
0-

Marius Hancu · Answer

0 You didn't find it in dictionaries because you didn't do a proper search. It's there in the online dictionaries. 02br
02br
00 Try at Yahoo:02br
02br
01font00"walk the talk" dictionary02br
00(quotation marks are important)02br
00 in order to find dictionary pages including the expression02br
00 and you will fin definitions such as this: 02br
02br
01b00walk the talk02b00: to act on what you profess to believe in or value02br
05002br
02font0250hrefhttp://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/Talk.html

Grodada · Answer

0 "Practice what you preach" is an alternative way of saying the same thing without sounding urban colloquy, as mentioned before.0-

Anonymous · Answer

Thanx

Meaning of "walk one's talk"

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