rigmarole

[rig-muh-rohl]

See more synonyms for rigmarole on Thesaurus.com

noun

an elaborate or complicated procedure: to go through the rigmarole of a formal dinner.
confused, incoherent, foolish, or meaningless talk.

Also rigamarole.

Origin of rigmarole

First recorded in 1730–40; alteration of ragman roll

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for rigmarole

hogwash, blather, jargon, madness, gobbledygook, babble, bunk, bull, foolishness, drivel, poppycock, rubbish, baloney, balderdash, prattle, gibberish, trash, palaver, senselessness, silliness

Examples from the Web for rigmarole

Contemporary Examples of rigmarole

After all the rigmarole, they found what any pediatrician already knew: the MMR causes fever.
Another Blow to Anti-Vaxxers’ Fortress of Pseudoscience
Kent Sepkowitz
July 2, 2014

Historical Examples of rigmarole

I was sitting with my finger in the hot water listening to this rigmarole.
The Stark Munro Letters
J. Stark Munro
What made that other child tell all that rigmarole about fairies?
A Little Maid of Old Philadelphia
Alice Turner Curtis
Daddy Tantaine began to grow impatient with all this rigmarole.
Caught In The Net
Emile Gaboriau
But I've got to tell you all this rigmarole first, so you'll understand what's comin'.
Aunt Jane of Kentucky
Eliza Calvert Hall
"All this rigmarole comes of the theatre," said Sister Agatha grimly.
Flamsted quarries
Mary E. Waller

British Dictionary definitions for rigmarole

rigmarole

rigamarole

noun

any long complicated procedure
a set of incoherent or pointless statements; garbled nonsense

Word Origin for rigmarole

C18: from earlier ragman roll a list, probably a roll used in a medieval game, wherein various characters were described in verse, beginning with Ragemon le bon Ragman the good

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for rigmarole

1736, "a long, rambling discourse," apparently from an altered, Kentish colloquial survival of ragman roll "long list or catalogue" (1520s), in Middle English a long roll of verses descriptive of personal characters, used in a medieval game of chance called Rageman, perhaps from Anglo-French Ragemon le bon "Ragemon the good," which was the heading on one set of the verses, referring to a character by that name. Sense transferred to "foolish activity or commotion" by 1939.