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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Recent Examples of song and dance
Marc, never again will there be our little outbursts of song and dance.
—
Jessica Lynch, Billboard, 3 June 2025
Kids will take a trip in song and dance to Miss Jamie’s Farm at 10:30 a.m. on July 19.
—Myrna Petlicki, Chicago Tribune, 31 May 2025
At first, Elsbeth watches Retta and her co-horts belt out the lyrics and move around her, before it’s revealed just how the song and dance routine is taking place.
—Vlada Gelman, TVLine, 6 May 2025
Molina’s stories are portrayed in colorful song and dance.
—Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 25 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for song and dance
Jessica Lynch, Billboard, 3 June 2025
Kids will take a trip in song and dance to Miss Jamie’s Farm at 10:30 a.m. on July 19.
—Myrna Petlicki, Chicago Tribune, 31 May 2025
At first, Elsbeth watches Retta and her co-horts belt out the lyrics and move around her, before it’s revealed just how the song and dance routine is taking place.
—Vlada Gelman, TVLine, 6 May 2025
Molina’s stories are portrayed in colorful song and dance.
—Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 25 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for song and dance
Recent Examples of Synonyms for song and dance
Noun
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Between February and May, when Dudek’s tenure ended, his erratic rhetoric and decisions routinely made front-page news.—
Eli Hager,
ProPublica,
8 Sep. 2025
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By moving from rhetoric to large-scale military action, Maduro is signaling that Venezuela will fight drug trafficking on its own terms while resisting Washington's narrative of Caracas as a narco-state.—
Amir Daftari,
MSNBC Newsweek,
8 Sep. 2025
Noun
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No rigamarole or bureaucracy to navigate.—
Andy Meek,
Forbes.com,
31 Aug. 2025
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The bust was followed by months of prolonged legal rigmarole.—
John Semley,
Rolling Stone,
19 Apr. 2025
Noun
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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
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The six-episode limited series feels like a long movie broken into arbitrary episodes, its ending is mired by digital gobbledygook, and Marvel still doesn’t know how magic makes sense in a universe ruled by advanced technology and literal gods.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
24 June 2025
Noun
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My last thought, here, beware of the endless gibberish about the hazards of rotations.—
Jim Cramer,
CNBC,
24 Aug. 2025
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Her toddler, who was almost two, leaned over the railing and called out to the agents in baby gibberish, but the agents did not acknowledge her.—
Jordan Salama,
New Yorker,
25 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Song and dance.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/song%20and%20dance. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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