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  1. mummery love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A performance by mummers.
  2. n. A pretentious or hypocritical show or ceremony.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Pantomime as enacted by mummers; a show or performance of mummers.
  2. n. A ceremony or performance considered false or pretentious; farcical show; hypocritical disguise and paradc: applied in contempt to various religious ceremonies by people who are of other sects or beliefs.

Wiktionary

  1. n. merrymaking; the performance of a mummer
  2. n. a ridiculous or ostentatious ceremony, especially of a religious nature
  3. n. a showy but empty performance

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Masking; frolic in disguise; buffoonery.
  2. n. Farcical show; hypocritical disguise and parade or ceremonies.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. meaningless ceremonies and flattery

Etymologies

  1. From Old French momerie, mommerie. (Wiktionary)
  2. French mommerie, from Old French momer, to wear a mask, pantomime. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “In fact, the mummery is the chief matter – which is what makes the play so attractive to children, and it may be added, so suitable for their performance.”

    The Peace Egg and a Christmas Mumming Play

  • “The horse looked about in the thick of the night, as the head of the horse peers out of the cloak, in Welsh mummery, at”

    Mary Anerley

  • “The horse looked about in the thick of the night, as the head of the horse peers out of the cloak, in Welsh mummery, at Christmas-tide.”

    Mary Anerley : a Yorkshire Tale

  • “It needed to be left in peace and quiet, not be stirred up to listen to what, in her increasing ire, the nurse termed mummery and flummery.”

    The Brentons

  • “[332] The same author says elsewhere, "Columella, Cato, Vitruvius, and Pliny, all had their notions of the advantages of cutting timber at certain ages of the moon; a piece of mummery which is still preserved in the royal ordonnances of France to the conservators of the forests, who are directed to fell oaks only 'in the wane of the moon' and 'when the wind is at north.”

    Moon Lore

  • “The "mummery" consisted in slow, gliding motions, in whirlings about intended to be graceful, in slow liftings of the hands upward, and in the beating of the drums.”

    Boy Scouts on Motorcycles With the Flying Squadron

  • “The bases of morality are sapped in the name of liberty; the discipline of the Church, when not branded as sheer "mummery," is held up as hostile to personal freedom; and her dogmas, with one or two exceptions, are treated as opinions which may be received or rejected with like indifference.”

    Public School Education

  • “In this "mummery" the most successful spectacle was that presented by a group arranged in obvious ridicule of”

    The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Complete (1555-66)

  • “In this "mummery" the most successful spectacle was that presented by a group arranged in obvious ridicule of Granvelle.”

    The Rise of the Dutch Republic — Volume 08: 1563-64

  • “Mussolini pushed through various municipal "improvements" fit only for fascist mummery.”

    The Wall Street Journal: The Heirloom City

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synonyms (4)

Words with the same meaning

  1. masking
  1. buffoonery
  1. acting
  1. pretense

hypernyms (5)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. hokum
  1. nonsense
  1. nonsensicality
  1. meaninglessness
  1. bunk

same context (9)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. clownishness
  1. scurrility
  1. trickery
  1. prevarication
  1. profanation
  1. hypothesi
  1. ill-usage
  1. genuflection
  1. waggery

reverse dictionary (4)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. mommery
  1. disguising
  1. antic
  1. foolery

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. fun
  1. favorite

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘mummery’.

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Comments

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  • magma "…Delusion convulses the leafless trees with the deepest appreciation of the mummery…" - William Carlos Williams, Imaginations Mar 26, 2010

  • bilby bummery - indiscriminate mooning
    plummery - flattery by fruit preserves
    gummery - inane fines for chewing gum
    stummery - meaningless silence
    tummery - bland kickshaw
    slummery - all poverty kinda looks the same
    fe-fi-fo-fummery - a giant serve of mummery
    glummery - I don't need a reason to be depressed
    Feb 8, 2009

  • avivamagnolia
    =A ridiculous, hypocritical, or pretentious ceremony or performance
    =A performance by mummers
    =Etymology: Middle French momerie, from momer
    =Date: circa 1530 Jan 19, 2009

  • dontcry As in "Mummery's Day?" May 9, 2008

  • brtom Across the page the symbols moved in grave morrice, in the mummery of their letters, wearing quaint caps of squares and cubes.
    Joyce, Ulysses, 2 Dec 29, 2006

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‘mummery’ has been looked up 1773 times, loved by 6 people, added to 24 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.