song and dance

noun

a story or statement, especially an untrue or misleading one designed to evade the matter at hand: Every time he's late, he gives me a song and dance about oversleeping.

Origin:
1870–75, Americanism

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source

Link To song and dance

Collins

World English Dictionary

song and dance

—n
1.	(Brit) a fuss, esp one that is unnecessary
2.	(US), (Canadian) a long or elaborate story or explanation, esp one that is evasive

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

00:10

Song and dance is always a great word to know.

So is quincunx. Does it mean:

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

song and dance

An elaborate story or effort to explain and justify something, or to deceive and mislead someone. For example, Do you really believe his song and dance about the alarm not going off, being stopped for speeding, and then the car breaking down? or At every annual meeting the chairman goes through the same song and dance about the company's great future plans. This term originally referred to a vaudeville act featuring song and dance. [Late 1800s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source

Example sentences

If one side quickly wins the game, the remainder of the evening until the feast is ready is occupied with song and dance.

It's the females who are the choosy ones, and surprisingly for many males, the dramatic song and dance appears to be in vain.

Authentic island performances of song and dance will be featured on the center stage as well.

The site includes segmented levels to advance skills, with song and dance for learning enjoyment.

Remove ads like these. Upgrade now!

Matching Quote

"The things a man has to have are hope and confidence in himself against odds, and sometimes he needs somebody, his pal or his mother or his wife or God, to give him that confidence. He's got to have some inner standards worth fighting for or there won't be any way to bring him into conflict. And he must be ready to choose death before dishonor without making too much song and dance about it. That's all there is to it."

-Clark Gable