higgledy-piggledy

comparative more higgledy-piggledy · superlative most higgledy-piggledy · alternative higgledypiggledy · alternative hoggledy-piggledy · alternative hoggledy-poggledy · alternative huggledy-piggledy

1. slangIn utter disorder or confusion; mixed up.

   I can't find your memo since my desk is all higgledy-piggledy.

   5 more examples

   A farmer in Hampshire was sorely distressed by the unsettling of his barn. However straightly over-night he laid his sheaves on the threshing-floor for the application of the morning's flail, when morning came, all was topsy-turvy, higgledy-piggledy, though the door remained locked, and there was no sign whatever of irregular entry.

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 305

   The houses of the central village were quite unlike the casual and higgledy-piggledy agglomeration of the mountain villages he knew.

   1911, H. G. Wells, The Country of the Blind

   For many years we have all known that the executive and administrative departments of the Government in Washington are a higgledy-piggledy patchwork of duplicate responsibilities and overlapping powers.

   1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat, 12 October

   The world is a higgledy-piggledy place, with things pleasant and unpleasant occurring in no particular sequence.

   1930, Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

   Breyer was not so direct, but was plainly uncomfortable with the state’s “higgledy-piggledy” reading, which he compared unfavorably to Gallardo’s request that the court interpret the provisions “consistently with the whole spirit of the thing, which is to leave the money with the Medicaid victim.”

   2022, Ronald Mann, “Justices debate state’s right to take tort recoveries from Medicaid beneficiaries”, in SCOTUSblog, 01-11

   Synonyms: disordered, disorderly, hugger-mugger, jumbled, topsy-turvy, raggle-taggle

comparative more higgledy-piggledy · superlative most higgledy-piggledy · alternative higgledypiggledy · alternative hoggledy-piggledy · alternative hoggledy-poggledy · alternative huggledy-piggledy

1. slangIn a confused, disordered, or random way.

   There is no kind of arrangement as regards the buildings they are erected "higgledy-piggledy;" backs to fronts, anyhow, with narrow passages between.

   1881, James Greenwood, chapter 11, in Low-Life Deeps

   Synonyms: willy-nilly

plural higgledy-piggledies · alternative higgledypiggledy · alternative hoggledy-piggledy · alternative hoggledy-poggledy · alternative huggledy-piggledy

1. A disordered jumble; a confusion.

   A Higgledy-Piggledy of Controversies and Opinions on various intereſting Subjects

   1779, Thomas Medley, The Shandymonian, subtitle

   Synonyms: hodgepodge

plural higgledy-piggledies · alternative higgledypiggledy · alternative hoggledy-piggledy · alternative hoggledy-poggledy · alternative huggledy-piggledy

1. A double-dactyl; a short poem with eight lines in dactylic meter.

   Higgledy-piggledies are more sophisticated than clerihews: they comprise double dactyls and rhymes and aren't always biographical.

   1980, Gyles Brandreth, The Joy of Lex, page 123

2. Any of various word games using rhyming compounds or dactylic words or phrases.

   The games are a bit archaically presented, but they include palindromes, acrostics, higgledy-piggledies, anagrams, etc.

   1994, Herbert Kohl, Masters' Word Game Collection, page 249