rigamarole
Rigamarole is a messy, complicated process that takes longer than it should. The rigamarole involved in getting your driver's license might make it tempting to just keep riding your bike.
The word rigamarole, which is also spelled rigmarole, is a great way to describe bureaucratic procedures like filling out tax forms or registering for college classes, or lengthy tasks like helping a small child put on boots, mittens, a coat, and a hat before leaving the house on a snowy day. You can also use it to mean "a long, rambling story," as in "He went into the whole rigamarole of how he'd pulled himself up by his bootstraps."
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a long and complicated and confusing procedure
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a set of confused and meaningless statementssynonyms: rigmarole
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Vocabulary lists containing rigamarole
The year is 1773, and fourteen-year-old Johnny is an apprentice silversmith in Boston. When a terrible accident threatens his future, Johnny must quickly adapt — just as the American colonists join forces to break free from British rule.
In this classic of the transcendentalist movement, Thoreau explains what he learned by living simply and in seclusion near a pond in eastern Massachusetts.
Kingsolver's first novel tells the story of Taylor Greer, who leaves Kentucky and tries to make a life for herself and an orphaned Native American girl in Tucson, Arizona.