talk the talk

To speak confidently or boastfully about something. Often used in the full phrase "talk the talk and walk the walk," which indicates that one can carry out what they claim. Chelsea talks a big game, but she can back it up too—she definitely talks the talk and walks the walk.

If someone talks the talk, they talk about a subject in a confident and impressive way, even if they do not really do much. These modern men may well talk the talk, but how are they going to react when a baby vomits on their best clothes? As anyone who has ever heard him address a conference will agree, he can certainly talk the talk. Note: People often use walk the walk after talk the talk. If someone walks the walk, they do the things they have been talking about. It's not good enough to talk the talk — the party needs to walk the walk, too.

To speak knowledgeably about something, especially something that one claims or implies one can do well.

Speak or behave appropriately to some image. Although the first part of this term appears to have originated in the late 1800s—George Meredith used it ca. 1887 in Marian, “She can talk the talk of men. And touch with thrilling fingers”—it did not become current until the second half of the 1900s. A New York Times headline for an article about an organization facing a sex discrimination suit even though it advised the Labor Department on this very subject, read, “Does RAND Walk the Talk on Labor Policy” (Sept. 5, 2004). In The Inner Voice (2004) by opera singer Renée Fleming, she wrote: “Musetta, of course, is a legendary coquette, and I was a famously shy girl from upstate. Even if I could learn how to talk the talk, I was hopeless when it came to walking the walk.”