rigmarole
6
9.0
- noun
- /ˈrɪɡməˌroʊl/
- Informal
:
trámite
- The application process was filled with unnecessary rigmarole, making it frustrating for everyone involved.
- go through the rigmarole
- bureaucratic rigmarole
- the whole rigmarole
But before we do that, do you, I presume you're going to go on a book tour and do the whole rigmarole with all of that, right?
- But before we do that, do you, I presume you're going to go on a book tour and do the whole rigmarole with all of that, right?
- They support, they see other countries have free health care and we and we are still paying through the nose and going through all this rigmarole.
- So I think that we're going to wait to get all of the, the holiday rigmarole out of the way with visiting people and, you know, back-to-back holidays, all that jazz.
- She the one that really demanded the rigmarole of all that was Princess Margaret.
- But most people have been through these rigmaroles, you know, and not realistically, is there a way for freedom to be attained?
Examples
-
The hostess hastily went through the rigmarole about life jackets.
Fiction book (1999) -
Going forward, anyone who's seen this rigmarole should have better information and should be able to govern themselves accordingly.
Blog text (32) -
So why such a big rigmarole and why such a big course?
-
Do you think we want to go through all that rigmarole tonight?
-
You want to go through the whole rigmarole?
-
"And before we have to pay to get in, and deal with park rangers and all that rigmarole."
Fiction book (1992) -
This rigmarole you have here just won't work.
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I'm not to be persuaded by this rigmarole.
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It's a lot easier to just bypass all that agent/editor rigmarole and be published instantly.
Blog text (2) -
All the rigmarole with this tuxedo, wedding rehearsals.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A long, confusing set of steps that seems unnecessary
1
7.2
An official process with many slow, pointless steps that delays decisions
A system with complicated rules and many steps that make things hard to follow
Antonyms
How Complicated
Surface Forms
Etymology
Rigmarole probably comes from an old phrase 'ragman roll', meaning a long list written on a roll of paper, and you can still see the familiar word roll in it. So a rigmarole is like a long, confusing set of steps or a pointless list, which explains why we use it for a long, annoying process.