[f. WIG sb.3 + -ERY.]
1. Wigs or false hair collectively; the practice of wearing a wig.
1775. Sturges, in Lett. J. Granger (1805), 168. Dr Loveday shewed me your waggery upon wiggery.
1800. in Spirit Publ. Jrnls., IV. 59. When I contemplate the Female wiggery, whether it be Roman or Athenian.
1866. Trollope, Claverings, iii. He had lost the hair from the crown of his head, and had preferred wiggery to baldness.
2. Used by Carlyle for: Empty formality (in legal proceedings), ‘red tape.’
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., II. xvii. There is yet in venerable wigged Justice some wisdom amid such mountains of wiggeries and folly. Ibid. (1858), Fredk. Gt., VI. ix. II. 131. Long lawsuit,… lengthy law-pleadings, and much parchment and wiggery.
