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.
- noun colloq. A succession of confused or nonsensical statements; foolish talk; nonsense.
- adjective Consisting of rigmarole; frivolous; nonsensical; foolish.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Complex ,obsolete procedures ; excesssteps oractivity ; needless motion. - noun
Nonsense ;confused andincoherent 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
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Especially where his own family was concerned, Mr. Wylder was not the most delicate of men! he opened the letter, and in it found what he called a rigmarole of poetry and theology!
There & Back George MacDonald 1864
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This party label rigmarole is silly, inside baseball bullshit .... on Guess Who's Got A Pimped Out New Web Presence?
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This party label rigmarole is silly, inside baseball bullshit .... on Guess Who's Got A Pimped Out New Web Presence?
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This party label rigmarole is silly, inside baseball bullshit .... on Guess Who's Got A Pimped Out New Web Presence?
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And here what is chiefly interesting in the rigmarole is the evidence that Milton had been recently attending to the news from Scotland.
The Life of John Milton Volume 3 1643-1649 David Masson 1864
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And here what is chiefly interesting in the rigmarole is the evidence that Milton had been recently attending to the news from Scotland.
The Life of John Milton Masson, David, 1822-1907 1859
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"The rigmarole is a lot, which is why I'm only going to Rebecca's show," said actress
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"The rigmarole is a lot, which is why I'm only going to Rebecca's show," said actress
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"The rigmarole is a lot, which is why I'm only going to Rebecca's show," said actress
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"The rigmarole is a lot, which is why I'm only going to Rebecca's show," said actress
chained_bear commented on the word rigmarole
Thanks for NOT pronouncing this "rigamarole." It's rigmarole.
Thank you.
February 2, 2007
ruzuzu commented on the word rigmarole
"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