hodgepodge

plural hodgepodges · alternative hodge-podge · alternative hotchpotch

1. collectivecountableuncountableA collection containing a variety of miscellaneous things.

   His latest sculpture is a hodgepodge of kitchen clutter and scrap glued together.

   3 more examples

   MAn's life is but vain, for tis ſubject to pain, / and ſorrow, and ſhort as a buble; / 'tis a hodge podge of buſineſs, and mony and care, / and care, and mony, and trouble.

   1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], chapter XI, in The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, […], London: […] T. Maxey for Rich[ard] Marriot, […], →OCLC; reprinted as The Compleat Angler (Homo Ludens; 6), Nieuwkoop, South Holland, Netherlands: Miland Publishers, 1969, →ISBN, page 217

   The entire section is a hodgepodge of ill-absorbed and ill-digested bits of information lifted in a haphazard fashion from the sources used with apparently no other goal in mind than to accumulate a list of items with some degree of resemblance to forms from Manding and Dravidian […]

   1989 January 28, Werner Winter, “On a new claim concerning substratum influence upon Tocharian”, in Central Asiatic Journal, volume 33, number 1/2, Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISSN, page 130

   For many years the furniture in my house was a hodgepodge of hand-me-downs, thrift store finds, IKEA, and a handful of things I had built.

   2026 August 28, Collin Knoff, “Mid-Century Modern Table”, in Popular Woodworking, volume 290, number 4, page 43

   Synonyms: farrago, melange, mishmash

2. countableuncountableA confused mass of ingredients shaken or mixed together in the same pot.

   The little Pieces of Beef vvere like Plums in our Hodg-podg. Indeed 'tvvas not fit to be eaten any other vvay; for tho' it did not ſtink, yet it vvas very unſavory and black, vvithout the leaſt ſign of Fat in it: […]

   1699, William Dampier, chapter I, in Voyages and Descriptions. Vol. II. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, part II (Mr. Dampier’s Voyages to the Bay of Campeachy), page 38

present singular third person hodgepodges · participle present hodgepodging · participle past hodgepodged · past hodgepodged · alternative hodge-podge · alternative hotchpotch

1. ambitransitiveTo move or position in an erratic, disorganized manner.