Definition of "ceremony"
ceremony
noun
countable and uncountable, plural ceremonies
A ritual, with religious or cultural significance.
Quotations
To whom the Priest with naked armes full netApproching nigh, and murdrous knife well whet,Gan mutter close a certaine secret charme,With other diuelish ceremonies met:
1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, pages 463-464
(uncountable) A formal socially established behaviour, often in relation to people of different ranks; formality.
Quotations
[…] to feed were best at home;From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;Meeting were bare without it.
c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene iv]
(uncountable) Show of magnificence, display, ostentation.
Quotations
Meanwhile the winged Heralds, by commandOf sovereign power, with awful ceremonyAnd trumpet’s sound, throughout the host proclaimA solemn council forthwith to be heldAt Pandemonium […]
1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 752-756
Immediately after her arrival, the queen rode forth to survey the camp and its environs: wherever she went, she was attended by a splendid retinue; and all the commanders vied with each other, in the pomp and ceremony with which they received her.
1829, Washington Irving, chapter 46, in A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, volume II, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, page 254
(obsolete) An accessory or object associated with a ritual.
Quotations
[…] Well, believe this,No ceremony that to great ones ’longs,Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword,The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe,Become them with one half so good a graceAs mercy does.
c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]
(obsolete) An omen or portent.
Quotations
For he is superstitious grown of late,Quite from the main opinion he held onceOf fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies.
1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]
Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,Yet now they fright me.
1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]