rigmaroles

He denies he was the peculiar lodger who wrote "rigmaroles" about immoral women:

Portrait of a Killer Cornwell, Patricia 1930

Above all, he was boring, to the point of stupefaction for those courtiers who had to sit through his all-night rigmaroles and chuckle at his sadistic whimsies in the bleary dawn.

Think Progress » Bush may trim Crawford vacation. 2006

Historians have backed religion, nationalism, class consciousness, and all the sociological rigmaroles from aggressiveness to curiosity.

Top Family Taylor, A.J.P. 1969

He would pace the floor for hours, sometimes all night; and then one might have heard some very peculiar rigmaroles declaimed aloud, or even shouted out -- phrases so jumbled that they were hardly rational, cries interrupted by groans or smothered by the grinding of his teeth.

Sacrifice Stephen French Whitman

A stuffed alligator sat up, on its hind legs, beside her -- a porcelain bell hung on a red ribbon about its neck -- to grin with a cheerful uncanniness on the rigmaroles of magic.

McClure's Magazine, Vol 31, No 2, June 1908 Various

Children of this sort would fain know what is meant by the doctrines concerning the many 'true Gods' they hear such precious rigmaroles about in Church and Conventicle, as well as the many orthodox opinions of that God, whose name is there so often

An Apology for Atheism Addressed to Religious Investigators of Every Denomination by One of Its Apostles Charles Southwell

The laugh which echoes one of Seumas McManus's rigmaroles is not the chuckle which follows one of Joel Chandler Harris's anecdotes; the gentle sadness of an Andersen allegory is not the heart-searching tragedy of a tale from the Greek; nor is any one story of an author just like any other of the same making.

How to Tell Stories to Children, And Some Stories to Tell Sara Cone Bryant

The lodger "had the habit of talking about the women of the street, and wrote 'long rigmaroles '" about them in handwriting resembling "that of letters sent to the police purporting to come from Jack the Ripper," according to the news story.

Portrait of a Killer Cornwell, Patricia 1930

How could anyone be expected to listen to prompted rigmaroles about "bread and butter before cake" and "don't forget to say thank you for asking me" with the prospect of this brave adventure drawing so near?

A Tall Ship On Other Naval Occasions 1886-1967 Bartimeus 1926

The laugh which echoes one of Seumas McManus's rigmaroles is not the chuckle which follows one of Joel Chandler Harris's anecdotes; the gentle sadness of an Andersen allegory is not the heart searching tragedy of a tale from the Greek; nor is any one story of an author just like any other of the same making.

How to Tell Stories to Children, and Some Stories to Tell 1915