harum-scarum
Americanadjective
-
reckless; rash; irresponsible.
He had a harum-scarum youth.
- Synonyms:
- scatterbrained, giddy, impetuous, impulsive, erratic
-
disorganized; uncontrolled.
- Synonyms:
- scatterbrained, giddy, impetuous, impulsive, erratic
adverb
noun
-
a reckless person.
-
reckless or unpredictable behavior or action.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of harum-scarum
1665–75; earlier harum-starum rhyming compound based on obsolete hare to harass + stare
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Maoris started the second-half in harum-scarum fashion, going down to 13 men when TK Howden and Bailyn Sullivan both committed yellow-card offences, but Scotland could only score five points in that 10-minute spell.
From BBC • Jul. 5, 2025
Fred is a harum-scarum kind of player, someone who, to the untrained observer, tends to dash about with no obvious purpose.
From BBC • Dec. 5, 2021
Of Custer, killed two years later at the Little Bighorn, Grinnell would write that he “knew nothing about Indians and was anyhow a harum-scarum fellow.”
From New York Times • Jul. 24, 2019
That made for harum-scarum early fare in which the Lions held their own with the Premier League team.
From The Guardian • Jan. 25, 2013
The now vigorous boy might go at his companions harum-scarum, with sword and buckler..
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
