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RELATED WORDS

clandestine, covert, hush-hush, intriguing, mysterious, quiet, secret, sly, sneaky, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover

Nearby words

  1. huge,
  2. hugely,
  3. hugeous,
  4. hugeously,
  5. huggable,
  6. hugger-muggery,
  7. huggins,
  8. huggy,
  9. hugh,
  10. hugh capet

Origin of hugger-mugger

1520–30; earlier hucker-mucker, rhyming compound based on mucker, Middle English mokeren to hoard
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for hugger-mugger

British Dictionary definitions for hugger-mugger

hugger-mugger

/ (ˈhʌɡəˌmʌɡə) /

noun

confusion
rare secrecy

adjective, adverb archaic

with secrecy
in confusion

verb obsolete

(tr) to keep secret
(intr) to act secretly

Word Origin for hugger-mugger

C16: of uncertain origin
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 hugger-mugger

hugger-mugger

also huggermugger, "secretly," 1520s, one of a number of similar-sounding reduplicated words in use around this time and meaning much the same thing, including hucker-mucker, which may be the original of the bunch if the root is, as some think, Middle English mukre "to hoard up, conceal." Also cf. Middle English hukmuck, late 15c., name of some sort of device for cleansing.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper