411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Bunburying
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
From en Bunbury ing, en Oscar Wilde 1 1 in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) after Bunbury, the fictitious disabled friend of the character Algernon whose supposed illness is used as an excuse to avoid social engagements.
Noun
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en humorous Avoiding one's duties and responsibilities by claiming to have appointments to see a fictitious person.
I Besides, now that I know you to be a confirmed Bunburyist I naturally want to talk to you about Bunburying. I want to tell you the rules.
en 1991 Helen A. Garten Why Bank Regulation Failed: Designing a Bank Regulatory Strategy for the 1990s This financial "Bunburying" solves the problem of how to let banking organizations make high yield investments in order to improve overall earnings without risking the kind of public opposition, and loss of public confidence in banks, that took place in the 1930s [...]
en 1994 Susan B. Kelly Time of Hope Alison frequently went Bunburying in London although she called it Networking. As far as Nick could make out it consisted of having long, boozy lunches with other businesswomen.
en 1995 James Hatch Sorrow Is the Only Faithful One James and Louise Forsyth owned a country house "older than Shakespeare's" in Haywards Heath, Sussex; there Owen spent three days stroking the pet sheep and admiring the view, Bunburying at its best.
Related terms
en Bunbury v
en Bunburyist
en eponyms terms derived from fiction