empty letter

English

Noun

empty letter (plural empty letters)

1. a promise that is not intended to be fulfilled
   • 1979 April, Luis van Isschot, Pacificacion y Desarrollo: Clientelism, Community Kitchens, and the Articulation of Social Policy in Contemporary Peru‎^[1]:

     "According to Thorpe: 'The renewed social contract implied by the 1979 Constitution became virtually an empty letter.'”