mummery

But what was once the norm can now seem a kind of ableist mummery, which this production attempts to sidestep by offering a Richard with no physical impairments at all.

From New York Times ● Jul. 11, 2022

Typically, contemporary novelists speak reverently of their form, as if the result were some kind of sacred object, so Alice’s position has a refreshing lack of mummery.

From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2021

“You know what that means,” is all he offered, and, after an evening of portentous headgear mummery, this hint at abdication should not be taken lightly.

From Slate ● Dec. 20, 2019

It's all mummery and flummery, and conducted with a winning amateurishness.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 1, 2012

"It would seem you've had quite an adventure. These men you heard, you say they spoke of juggling and mummery?"

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

He grew cold to newsmen, turned his press conferences into funereal mummeries, finally began canceling them altogether.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nor was it ''mere timidity or fanaticism or calculated hardness: it was a deep and speculative thing: hatred of all shams, scorn of all mummeries, a bitter, merciless pleasure in the hard facts.

From Time Magazine Archive

The consequence is that I judge of people not by their creeds, not by their rites, not by their mummeries, but by their actions.

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 11 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Miscellany by Robert Green Ingersoll

"One thing is certain," she added, to herself, as a sort of comfort, "Tita will have to do her mummeries in the garden after this."

From Anne by Constance Fenimore Woolson

Lukins was first attacked by a kind of epileptic fit, when he was going about acting Christmas plays, or mummeries: this he ascribed to a blow given by an invisible hand.

From Apparitions; or, The Mystery of Ghosts, Hobgoblins, and Haunted Houses Developed by Joseph Taylor