mummery
Americannoun
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mummeries
plural
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the performance of mummers.
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any performance, ceremony, etc., regarded as absurd, false, or ostentatious.
noun
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a performance by mummers
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hypocritical or ostentatious ceremony
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
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 ● Jul. 11, 2022
Typically, contemporary novelists speak reverently of their form, as if the result were some kind of sacred object, so Alice’s position has a refreshing lack of mummery.
From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2021
“You know what that means,” is all he offered, and, after an evening of portentous headgear mummery, this hint at abdication should not be taken lightly.
From Slate ● Dec. 20, 2019
It's all mummery and flummery, and conducted with a winning amateurishness.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 1, 2012
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 "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
He grew cold to newsmen, turned his press conferences into funereal mummeries, finally began canceling them altogether.
From Time Magazine Archive
Nor was it ''mere timidity or fanaticism or calculated hardness: it was a deep and speculative thing: hatred of all shams, scorn of all mummeries, a bitter, merciless pleasure in the hard facts.
From Time Magazine Archive
Lukins was first attacked by a kind of epileptic fit, when he was going about acting Christmas plays, or mummeries: this he ascribed to a blow given by an invisible hand.
From Apparitions; or, The Mystery of Ghosts, Hobgoblins, and Haunted Houses Developed by Joseph Taylor
He had seen mysteries, mummeries, morris-dances, and Christmas revels in his own hall at Charlecote.
From William Shakespeare as he lived. An Historical Tale by Henry Curling
I, as medicine man and chief sorcerer, went through a great many mummeries, which I managed to make last all the forenoon.
From O'er Many Lands, on Many Seas by Gordon Stables
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