mummery

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (4)  · 
"Come on, old chap," was all he said 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.

View all »
Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

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

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • By this piece of effrontery he brought to Pen Cuckoo a dram of mummery, and ever since those days most of the Jernighams had had a passion for theatricals. —  Overture to Death - Ngaio Marsh - Alleyn 08: 1939
  • An infuriated squaw, to whom all this mummery was the gravest and most momentous of concerns, flew at him, brandishing a tomahawk over his head. —  BOOTS AND SADDLES: OR LIFE IN DAKOTA WITH GENERAL CUSTER
  • He broke into a storm of laughter which ended as abruptly as it began, ended from a sudden realisation that all this folly and mummery was a real and solid effort to compass his escape. —  Men of Affairs
  • That mummery is at an end. —  The King's Esquires The Jewel of France
  • Colonel Warrington certainly told me the people saw through all the mummery, and laughed, or were angry. —  Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 63 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French mommerie, from Old French momer, to wear a mask, pantomime.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also mommery; from Old French mommerie, French momerie (= Spanish momeria = Dutch mommerij = G, mummerei = Danish mummeri), mummery, from momer, mum, go a mumming: see mum.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/ˈməməri/
by American Heritage
by gabor vlajk
by gabor vlajk

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a year.

Recently looked up

contradiction · invoke · Mailman · CDO · asparagus

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich