| 释义 |
rigmarole, n. (and a.)|ˈrɪgmərəʊl|
Also 8 riggmonrowle, rig-my-role, -roll, rig-me-role, rigmarol.
[App. a colloquial survival and alteration of Ragman roll (sense 2); the latter seems to have gone out of literary use about 1600.]
1. a. A succession of incoherent statements; an unconnected or rambling discourse; a long-winded harangue of little meaning or importance.
1736Pegge Kenticisms, Rigmarole, a long story; a ‘tale of a tub’. 1746–7Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. Ser. i. II. 454 At first she could not tell what to make of such a rig-my-role, but at last fixed it on Greene and the duke. 1757Foote Author ii, You are always running on with your riggmon⁓rowles. 1766Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. Ser. ii. I. 77 How I have run on! Burn this rig-me-role instantly, I entreat your ladyship. 1779F. Burney Diary 20 Oct., That's better than a long rigmarole about nothing. 1814Scott in Lockhart (1839) IV. 274 She repeated a sort of rigmarole which I suppose she had ready for such occasions. 1859Meredith R. Feverel xi, You never heard such a rigmarole. 1883Times 2 Nov. 2/3 A long rigmarole was told how the journalist's hat had fallen into the Seine.
b. Without article: Language of this kind.
1809W. Irving Knickerb. vii. vi. (1820) 488 They were exactly the same that..may be classed in rhetoric under the general title of Rigmarole. 1818Byron Juan i. clxxiv, His speech was a fine sample, on the whole, Of rhetoric, which the learn'd call ‘rigmarole’. 1887Jessopp Arcady iii. 88 Scraps of paper..scribbled over with rigmarole.
c. transf. A succession of tiresome duties; a lengthy procedure; a fuss, a ‘palaver’.
1955Times 24 June 12/5 The Government set up..the whole rigmarole of scheduling, listing, and building preservation orders. 1965M. Spark Mandelbaum Gate i. vi. 178 The whole rigmarole about the film unit visiting Qumran was plainly an occasion for citing the case of the producer. 1977Grimsby Even. Tel. 14 May 10/5 The Wakefield Trophy series is a good way to introduce lads or girls in the area to cycle racing without having to go to the expense and rigmarole of training.
2. attrib., passing into adj. Incoherent; having no proper sequence of ideas; rambling.
1753–4Richardson Grandison VI. xxv. 141 You must all of you go on in one rig-my-roll way; in one beaten track. 1791Boswell Johnson I. 191 note, In that manner vulgarly, but significantly, called rigmarole. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) vi. xviii, Their rigmarole wonderings..at the number of miles which you have travelled out of your way. 1839Miss Maitland Lett. fr. Madras (1843) 242 Probably the performance will be so queer and rigmarole that nobody will read it. 1857S. Osborn Quedah xi. 138 He began a long rigmarole story about Malaymen not liking to clean copper. 1870M. Bridgman R. Lynne II. x. 213 What a rigmarole letter!
Hence ˈrigmarole v. intr., to talk rigmarole; rigmaˈrolery, rigmarole discourse; rigmaˈrolic a., of the nature of rigmarole.
1831Blackw. Mag. XXX. 330/2 Ridgway rigmaroled, and Brougham vapoured. 1839Ibid. XLV. 466 Sentimental rigmarolery and practical benevolence seldom go together. a1849Poe Wks. (1864) III. 576 ‘What is Poetry?’ notwithstanding Leigh Hunt's rigmarolic attempt at answering it, is a query [etc.]. 1922Joyce Ulysses 756 O beau pays de la Touraine that I never even sang once explaining and rigmaroling about religion and persecution. |