as in rigamarole
language marked by abstractions, jargon, euphemisms, and circumlocutions
instead of simply denying our request, the mayor's representative gave us a song and dance about legal issues and municipal liability
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of song and dance
During the closing Neilah service after night has fallen, the practice concludes with the cries of the Shema prayer before the congregation erupts into song and dance.
—
Krys'tal Griffin, Freep.com, 2 Oct. 2025
The song and dance competition will feature three competitors — Sapphire Martini, Bloody Mary and April Spritz.
—Brady MacDonald, Oc Register, 18 Sep. 2025
And the bizarre song and dance numbers, for all their anachronism, pull us in further.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 4 Sep. 2025
As in a more straightforward musical, the Shakers are using song and dance to express a range of feelings that plainspoken words couldn’t hope to convey.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 1 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for song and dance
Krys'tal Griffin, Freep.com, 2 Oct. 2025
The song and dance competition will feature three competitors — Sapphire Martini, Bloody Mary and April Spritz.
—Brady MacDonald, Oc Register, 18 Sep. 2025
And the bizarre song and dance numbers, for all their anachronism, pull us in further.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 4 Sep. 2025
As in a more straightforward musical, the Shakers are using song and dance to express a range of feelings that plainspoken words couldn’t hope to convey.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 1 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for song and dance
Recent Examples of Synonyms for song and dance
Noun
-
The anti-American side focuses exclusively on the tragedies, usually makes slavery the chief argument for the prosecution, and dismisses the triumphs as hypocritical rhetoric.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Oct. 2025
-
Karbler hopes the rhetoric begins to diminish.—
Jake Kring-Schreifels,
Time,
27 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
So there are all those questions and rigmarole.—
Jordan Moreau,
Variety,
24 Sep. 2025
-
No rigamarole or bureaucracy to navigate.—
Andy Meek,
Forbes.com,
31 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Meaningless gobbledygook to an outsider, yet powerful to those who know how to wield those sounds properly.—
Noel Murray,
Vulture,
17 Oct. 2025
-
Bob Kring DeBary Congressional bill is full of greed The Great Big Beautiful Bill reads like 950 pages of of gobbledygook distilled into four words: Greedy, stingy, mean and short-sighted.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
2 July 2025
Noun
-
Vril and Agartha have thrived in part because of the way the editors mix brainrot and bigotry, disguising their ideological assaults in the fried fog of GifTok rap gibberish.—
Kieran Press-Reynolds,
Pitchfork,
24 Oct. 2025
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The strategy always involves the same ingredients: The message, called the plaintext, gets distorted (the encryption) so that anybody who intercepts it sees only garbled gibberish (the ciphertext).—
Jack Murtagh,
Scientific American,
22 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Song and dance.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/song%20and%20dance. Accessed 1 Nov. 2025.
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