higgledy-piggledy

[hig-uh l-dee-pig-uh l-dee]

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adverb

in a jumbled, confused, or disorderly manner; helter-skelter.

adjective

confused; jumbled.

Origin of higgledy-piggledy

First recorded in 1590–1600; rhyming compound of uncertain origin

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for higgledy-piggledy

chaotic, disordered, disorderly, disorganized, haywire, helter-skelter, involved, jumbled, messy, miscellaneous, mistaken, misunderstood, obscured, snafu, top, anarchic, blurred

Examples from the Web for higgledy-piggledy

Historical Examples of higgledy-piggledy

All his old values had been kicked into higgledy-piggledy confusion.
The Rough Road
William John Locke
They are not so much arranged about one another as superposed and higgledy-piggledy.
First and Last Things
H. G. Wells
Here we disembarked, higgledy-piggledy, just as we had embarked.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
We fling papers in disorder, higgledy-piggledy, on the floor: what do we care?
My Little Boy
Carl Ewald
Among the many industries the Higgledy-Piggledy Shop boasted was that of laundering fine linen and laces.
Mary Louise and Josie O'Gorman
Emma Speed Sampson

British Dictionary definitions for higgledy-piggledy

higgledy-piggledy

adjective, adverb

in a jumble

noun

a muddle

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for higgledy-piggledy

"confusedly, hurriedly," 1590s, a "vocal gesture" [OED] probably formed from pig and the animal's suggestions of mess and disorder. Reduplications in the h-/p- pattern are common (e.g. hanky-panky, hocus-pocus, hinch(y)-pinch(y), an obsolete children's game, attested from c.1600).

Edward Moor, "Suffolk Words and Phrases" (London, 1823), quotes a list of reduplications from Ray's "Collection of English Words" (1768), all said to "signify any confusion or mixture;" the list has higgledy-piggledy, hurly-burly, hodge-podge, mingle-mangle, arsy-versy, kim-kam, hub-bub, crawly-mauly, and hab-nab. "To which he might have added," Moor writes, crincum-crankum, crinkle-crankle, flim-flam, fiddle-faddle, gibble-gabble, harum-scarum, helter-skelter, hiccup-suickup, hocus-pocus, hotch-potch, hugger-mugger, hum-drum, hum-strum, hurry-scurry, jibber-jabber, prittle-prattle, shilly-shally, tittle-tattle, and topsy-turvy. Many of them seem to date to the 16th century.