Origin of hugger-mugger
1520–30; earlier hucker-mucker, rhyming compound based on mucker, Middle English mokeren to hoard
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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Related Words for hugger-mugger
clandestine, covert, hush-hush, intriguing, mysterious, quiet, secret, sly, sneaky, stealthy, surreptitious, undercoverExamples from the Web for hugger-mugger
Historical Examples of hugger-mugger
Let alone his meals being all hugger-mugger and comfortless.
Mary BartonElizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Muddle flies before it, and hugger-mugger becomes a thing unknown.
CharacterSamuel Smiles
Mr Bethany tossed the hugger-mugger of pamphlets across the table.
The ReturnWalter de la Mare
The trouble was his “hugger-mugger” management, as Carlyle expressed it.
Leigh Hunt's Relations with Byron, Shelley and KeatsBarnette Miller
All that set you were brought up in—why, one only had to look at them to see what a hugger-mugger way they probably lived.
VeraElisabeth von Arnim
hugger-mugger
noun
adjective, adverb archaic
verb obsolete
Word Origin for hugger-mugger
C16: of uncertain origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper