Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A performance by mummers.
- noun A pretentious or hypocritical show or ceremony.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Pantomime as enacted by mummers; a show or performance of mummers.
- noun A ceremony or performance considered false or pretentious; farcical show; hypocritical disguise and paradc: applied in contempt to various religious ceremonies by people who are of other sects or beliefs.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Masking; frolic in disguise; buffoonery.
- noun Farcical show; hypocritical disguise and parade or ceremonies.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
merrymaking ; the performance of amummer - noun a ridiculous or ostentatious ceremony, especially of a religious nature
- noun a showy but empty performance
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun meaningless ceremonies and flattery
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In fact, the mummery is the chief matter – which is what makes the play so attractive to children, and it may be added, so suitable for their performance.
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The horse looked about in the thick of the night, as the head of the horse peers out of the cloak, in Welsh mummery, at
Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004
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The horse looked about in the thick of the night, as the head of the horse peers out of the cloak, in Welsh mummery, at Christmas-tide.
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It needed to be left in peace and quiet, not be stirred up to listen to what, in her increasing ire, the nurse termed mummery and flummery.
The Brentons Anna Chapin Ray 1905
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[332] The same author says elsewhere, "Columella, Cato, Vitruvius, and Pliny, all had their notions of the advantages of cutting timber at certain ages of the moon; a piece of mummery which is still preserved in the royal ordonnances of France to the conservators of the forests, who are directed to fell oaks only 'in the wane of the moon' and 'when the wind is at north.'"
Moon Lore Timothy Harley
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The "mummery" consisted in slow, gliding motions, in whirlings about intended to be graceful, in slow liftings of the hands upward, and in the beating of the drums.
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The bases of morality are sapped in the name of liberty; the discipline of the Church, when not branded as sheer "mummery," is held up as hostile to personal freedom; and her dogmas, with one or two exceptions, are treated as opinions which may be received or rejected with like indifference.
Public School Education Michael M��ller 1862
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In this "mummery" the most successful spectacle was that presented by a group arranged in obvious ridicule of
The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Complete (1555-84) John Lothrop Motley 1845
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In this "mummery" the most successful spectacle was that presented by a group arranged in obvious ridicule of
The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Complete (1555-66) John Lothrop Motley 1845
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In this "mummery" the most successful spectacle was that presented by a group arranged in obvious ridicule of Granvelle.
The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 08: 1563-64 John Lothrop Motley 1845
brtom commented on the word mummery
Across the page the symbols moved in grave morrice, in the mummery of their letters, wearing quaint caps of squares and cubes.
Joyce, Ulysses, 2
December 29, 2006
dontcry commented on the word mummery
As in "Mummery's Day?"
May 9, 2008
avivamagnolia commented on the word mummery
=A ridiculous, hypocritical, or pretentious ceremony or performance
=A performance by mummers
=Etymology: Middle French momerie, from momer
=Date: circa 1530
January 19, 2009
bilby commented on the word mummery
bummery - indiscriminate mooning
plummery - flattery by fruit preserves
gummery - inane fines for chewing gum
stummery - meaningless silence
tummery - bland kickshaw
slummery - all poverty kinda looks the same
fe-fi-fo-fummery - a giant serve of mummery
glummery - I don't need a reason to be depressed
February 8, 2009
magma commented on the word mummery
"…Delusion convulses the leafless trees with the deepest appreciation of the mummery…" - William Carlos Williams, Imaginations
March 26, 2010