穿靴戴帽

chuānxuēdàimào ㄔㄨㄢ ㄒㄩㄝ ㄉㄞˋ ㄇㄠˋ

    • to pad a speech or essay with empty preaching at the start and end

Character by character

Saying俗语俗語

Idiom惯用语 · Rarely used now

Literally
put on boots and a hat
Meaning
To pad a speech or essay with empty preaching at the start and end, whatever the content. Critical.

Sources