rigmarole
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɹɪɡməɹəʊl/
ipa: /ˈɹɪɡməɹoʊl/
Forms: form: rigmaroles
form: rigamarole
Etymology: From ragman roll (“long list; catalogue”).
Senses: examples: text: Have you seen all the rigmarole you have to go through at airport security these days?
synonyms: carry-on
circus act
palaver
riddle me ree
glosses: A long and complicated formal procedure.
examples: text: Often one's dear friend talks something which one scruples to call rigmarole.
ref: 1847, Thomas De Quincey, “Secret Societies”, in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine:
text: While you are planting the seed, he cries -- "Drop it, drop it -- cover it up, cover it up -- pull it up, pull it up, pull it up." But this was not corn, and so it was safe from such enemies as he. You may wonder what his rigmarole, his amateur Paganini performances on one string or on twenty, have to do with your planting, and yet prefer it to leached ashes or plaster.
ref: 1854, Henry David Thoreau, chapter VII, in Walden:
text: His reply did not even allude to the subject, but was a rigmarole about the weather; as if he had been writing to an idiot, who did not require a rational answer to any question they had asked.
ref: 1880, Rosina Bulwer Lytton, A Blighted Life, sxn 4
text: "Stuff and nonsense, and lying rigmaroles!" he growled, as I vanished through the door[.]
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 250:
text: In comes Mitaiele to Lloyd, and told some rigmarole about Paatalise (the steward's name) wanting to go and see his family in the bush.
ref: 1895, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter XIX, in The Valima Letters:
text: "Quite so," said Adèle comfortably. "Now let us be sensible and dine. We can amuse ourselves with mademoiselle's rigmaroles afterwards."
ref: 1910, A. E. W. Mason, chapter XVII, in At the Villa Rose:
text: He seemed to brace himself for a great effort, and then started on the queerest rigmarole.
ref: 1915, John Buchan, chapter 1, in The Thirty-Nine Steps:
synonyms: word: babble
word: blather
word: gibberish
word: migmarole
word: absurdity
word: all my eye
word: all my eye and Betty Martin
word: applesauce
word: bafflegab
word: balderdash
word: balls
word: baloney
word: banana oil
word: Bandini
word: baragouin
word: batcrap
word: batshit
word: bilgewater
word: blah
word: blather
word: blatherskite
word: bobbins
word: bollocks
word: bosh
word: BS
word: bull
word: bullcrap
word: bulldust
word: bull feathers
word: bullshit
word: bullspeak
word: bunk
word: bunkum
word: bushwah
word: clamjamfrey
word: claptrap
word: cobblers
word: codswallop
word: crap
word: crock
word: crock of shit
word: double Dutch
word: double talk
word: doublespeak
word: dribble
word: drivel
word: eyewash
word: fiddle-faddle
word: flapdoodle
word: flim-flam
word: flizz
word: flummery
word: folderol
word: foolishness
word: footle
word: framis
word: fuckery
word: fuckry
word: fudge
word: galimatias
word: garbage
word: garble
word: gibber
word: gibberish
word: gobbledygook
word: gossip
word: Greek
word: guff
word: gup
word: hoax
word: hocus-pocus
word: hogwash
word: hokum
word: hooey
word: horsefeathers
word: horse hockey
word: horse piss
word: horse puckey
word: horseshit
word: humbug
word: Irish bull
word: jabber
word: jargon
word: jibber-jabber
word: jimjam
word: jive
word: junk
word: lallation
word: macaroni
word: malarkey
word: manure
word: meaninglessness
word: moonshine
word: mumbo jumbo
word: nertz
word: nonsense
word: pie in the sky
word: piffle
word: pigswill
word: poppycock
word: prattle
word: put-on
word: rhubarb
word: rhubarb rhubarb
word: rigmarole
word: rot
word: rubbish
word: ruse
word: santorum
word: shit
word: shite
word: skimble-skamble
word: squit
word: stuff
word: stuff and nonsense
word: tommy-rot
word: tosh
word: tush
word: trash
word: tripe
word: twaddle
word: wass
word: whiff-whaff
word: word salad
glosses: Confused and incoherent talk; nonsense.