Listen to what I’m saying because I really mean it. This expression actually has no relation to the lip-reading done by deaf persons who try to make out what is being said from the movement of a person’s mouth. It dates from the mid-1900s. In 1978 it was used as the title of an album of songs by British actor and singer Tim Curry, who in turn picked up the phrase from an Italian-American recording engineer. But it was popularized by George H. W. Bush in his acceptance speech for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination: “Congress will push me to raise taxes. . . . And I’ll say to them, ‘Read my lips. No new taxes.’” It continued to be widely used in politics, sports, and indeed any venue where someone wanted to make an emphatic statement. It is well on its way to clichédom.