song and dance

1. A long and elaboriate explanation or presentation. Primarily heard in US. The whole song and dance to introduce the keynote speaker lasted longer than her speech!

2. A long and elaboriate explanation told with the intent to deceive someone or justify something. When I questioned her about her tardiness, she gave me some song and dance about her car breaking down.

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]

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Zhaleh	-	Persian
SauliĀ	-	Baltic Mythology (Hypothetical)
Corbin	KAWR-bin	English
Hilja	HEEL-yah	Finnish
Pagan	['peigən]
Linzi	LIN-zee	English (Rare)