A lick and a promise

Meaning

This means doing a job quickly and sloppily with the intention of doing it better later. It is a way of half-doing something just to get it out of the way.

Playful, self-aware

Used in a sentence

• I only gave the kitchen a lick and a promise before the guests arrived.
• The report was just a lick and a promise, I need to go back and edit it.
• He did a lick and a promise on the dishes so he could go outside to play.