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I have just read another post on here which taught me that the phrase "without further ado" is misused often. Most of the time, I suspect people say it (including me, before now) to mean "without delay, we will continue on", or something of the sort.

My question here is: is there an alternative phrase to "without further ado" to mean what people usually mean when they say it? Or should I just say "without further ado" in the knowledge that most people know what I mean?

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  • It depends on what you mean.
    – Hot Licks
    Jun 13, 2020 at 0:15
  • @HotLicks I mean to say "without delay, we will continue on", but I want to use a figure of speech (to make it sound snappier).
    – Jake Ireland
    Jun 13, 2020 at 0:16
  • in my opinion the answer you've linked to is wrong. It tries to apply the dictionary definition of ado too strictly, without any allowance for the deliberate irony or humour that somebody might use when ending a speech.
    – nnnnnn
    Jun 13, 2020 at 1:17
  • This seems to be much ado about nothing.
    – Hot Licks
    Jun 13, 2020 at 2:44
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    If people use without further ado most of the time to mean "without delay," then that's what it means most of the time. You can't say it's misused if the majority of people give it that use. In fact, if you claim that is how it's used most of the time, you could make the argument that it's actually those who use it in its original meaning are now misusing it. However, there's no reason something can't have more than one meaning. That happens all the time. And that means it's not being misused in either sense, but that it's just been contextualized.
    – Jason Bassford
    Jun 13, 2020 at 4:46

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If you must use a cliche, then "moving on" is another fairly anodyne one, but beware: it has connotations of recovering from a solecism.

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