rigmarole

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A long and complicated formal procedure.

   “Have you seen all the rigmarole you have to go through at airport security these days?”

2. (countable, dated, uncountable)Confused and incoherent talk; nonsense.

   “Often one's dear friend talks something which one scruples to call rigmarole.”

   “While you are planting the seed, he cries -- "Drop it, drop it -- cover it up, cover it up -- pull it up, pull it up, pull it up." But this was not corn, and so it was safe from such enemies as he. You may wonder what his rigmarole, his amateur Paganini performances on one string or on twenty, have to do with your planting, and yet prefer it to leached ashes or plaster.”

   “His reply did not even allude to the subject, but was a rigmarole about the weather; as if he had been writing to an idiot, who did not require a rational answer to any question they had asked.”

   “"Stuff and nonsense, and lying rigmaroles!" he growled, as I vanished through the door[.]”

   “In comes Mitaiele to Lloyd, and told some rigmarole about Paatalise (the steward's name) wanting to go and see his family in the bush.”

adj

1. Characterized by rigmarole; prolix; tedious.

   “This is a most rigmarole letter, for after each sentence, I take breath[…]”

   “"This officer has ended at last," said the Prime Minister. "Another story of calamity, and told in a very rigmarole way, I must confess; but he never can shorten his reports by only inserting the weighty matter. 'Reports annexed,' indeed!—yes, six of them; and underneath sixteen other reports—all, no doubt, much in the same strain."”