shadow-box 
verb [no object] (often as noun shadow-boxing)
1Spar with an imaginary opponent as a form of training: train for agility with fast shadow-boxing they shadow-boxed a bit to warm up...
- Greer scorns the spectacle of ‘a modern Hamlet bumbling and dithering around the stage, shadow-boxing with his own personality, especially when the part is played in a cinematic inward-turning way.’
- The words sound very outspoken and authoritative, but are really shadow-boxing: nobody who is sufficiently civilised in approach to be reading such a book is likely to disagree with them.
- Things are going to go wrong on the first day, but it is like shadow-boxing: it is not going to be the real fight.
1.1Make a show of tackling a problem or opponent while avoiding any direct engagement: a fortnight of political shadow-boxing...
- Only last month, in the Prime Minister's "seminal" speech about foreign relations, he was still shadow-boxing with the past.
- happy-clappy
- happy couple
- happy days
- happy dust
- happy ending
- happy event
- happy families
- happy family
- happy-go-lucky
- happy hardcore
- happy hour
- happy hunting ground
- happy land
- happy landings
- happy medium
- happy pair
- happy pill
- happy place
- happy release
- happy-sad
- happy ship
- happy slap
- happy slapper
- happy slapping
- happy-slappy