higgledy-piggledy
Americanadverb
adjective
adjective
noun
Etymology
Origin of higgledy-piggledy
First recorded in 1590–1600; rhyming compound of uncertain origin
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.
Ukrainians upload a higgledy-piggledy stream of information about Russians killed in the war on several channels on the Telegram messaging application, including the names of the deceased.
From New York Times • Dec. 18, 2022
Moreover, the liver does not just expand higgledy-piggledy in the animals.
From Science Magazine • Nov. 15, 2022
"Some of them are more than 100 years old and quite higgledy-piggledy … they might not have a centralised escalator. If you built them from scratch you wouldn't build them that way."
From BBC • Jun. 5, 2018
Stage blood and slime are squirted and splattered higgledy-piggledy.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 1, 2016
Several of them lay thrown off the shelves, open on the floor or the wide dusty tables, and others had been thrust back higgledy-piggledy.
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
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.
