mummery
Americannoun
plural
mummeries-
the performance of mummers.
-
any performance, ceremony, etc., regarded as absurd, false, or ostentatious.
noun
-
a performance by mummers
-
hypocritical or ostentatious ceremony
Etymology
Origin of mummery
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But what was once the norm can now seem a kind of ableist mummery, which this production attempts to sidestep by offering a Richard with no physical impairments at all.
From New York Times
Scalia writes that Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion is written “in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic,” overflowing with “mummeries,” “silly extravagances,” and “straining-to-be-memorable passages.”
From MSNBC
When called upon to play the bear and carry off the maiden fair, he had been sullen and uncooperative, shuffling lifelessly through his paces when he deigned to take part in their mummery at all.
From Literature
If we lose the war, she ought to take up mummery, she has a gift for it.
From Literature
"It would seem you've had quite an adventure. These men you heard, you say they spoke of juggling and mummery?"
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
