Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Confused, rambling, or incoherent discourse; nonsense.
  • noun A complicated, petty set of procedures.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A succession of confused or foolish statements; an incoherent, long-winded harangue; disjointed talk or writing; balderdash; nonsense.
  • noun Synonyms Chat, Jargon, etc. See prattle.
  • Consisting of or characterized by rigmarole; long-winded and foolish; prolix; hence, formal; tedious.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Consisting of rigmarole; frivolous; nonsensical; foolish.
  • noun colloq. A succession of confused or nonsensical statements; foolish talk; nonsense.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Complex, obsolete procedures; excess steps or activity; needless motion.
  • noun Nonsense; confused and incoherent talk.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a set of confused and meaningless statements
  • noun a long and complicated and confusing procedure

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of obsolete ragman roll, catalog, from Middle English ragmane rolle, scroll used in Ragman, a game of chance : perhaps from Anglo-Norman Ragemon le bon, Ragemon the Good, title of a set of verses about a character of this name + Middle English rolle, list (from Old French, from Latin rotula, wheel; see roll).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From ragman roll ("long list; catalogue").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word rigmarole.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Thanks for NOT pronouncing this "rigamarole." It's rigmarole.

    Thank you.

    February 2, 2007

  • "Alteration of obsolete ragman roll, catalog, from Middle English ragmane rolle, scroll used in Ragman, a game of chance, perhaps from : Anglo-Norman Ragemon le bon, Ragemon the Good, title of a set of verses about a character of this name + Middle English rolle, list (from Old French, from Latin rotula, wheel; see roll)."

    -The American Heritage Dictionary

    May 28, 2010