skimble-skamble

alternative skimble-scamble

1. not comparableConfused, chaotic, disorderly, senseless.

   He spoke some skimble-skamble stuff and I asked a couple of questions, and then I had to laugh.

   2008, John Mogan, “Born, Born Again, and Reborn”, in The Book of Sacha and Sacha’s Animals, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 191

   3 more examples

   [S]ometime he angers me / With telling me of the Mouldwarp and the Ant, / Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies, / And of a Dragon and a finles fiſh, / A clipwingd Griffin and a molten rauen, / A couching Leon and a ramping Cat, / And ſuch a deale of skimble ſcamble ſtuffe / As puts me from my faith.

   c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

   [Y]ou should hae made a' things plain and positive to Katherine. Such skimble-skamble, yea and nay kind o' ways willna do wi' women.

   1886, Amelia E. Barr, “The Beginning of Strife”, in The Bow of Orange Ribbon: A Romance of New York, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, →OCLC, page 62

   Some of this exuberant, large-scale movie is charming and inventive, and some of it is pitifully trashy, in the style of Ken Russell's skimble-skamble burlesques of [Pyotr Ilyich] Tchaikovsky, [Gustav] Mahler, and [Franz] Liszt.

   1984 September 24, David Denby, “Movies: Mozartmania [review of Amadeus]”, in New York, volume 17, number 38, New York, N.Y.: News Group Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 93, column 1

   Synonyms: absurd, Laputan, cockamamie, cockeyed, farcical, foolish, full of it, irrational

1. uncountableGibberish, mumbo-jumbo, nonsense.

   Did you read his skimble-skamble about * * being at the head of his own profession, in the eyes of those who followed it?

   1818 June 1, Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, “Letter CCCXVII. To Mr Moore.”, in Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: […], volume II, Paris: Published by A[nthony] and W[illiam] Galignani, […], published 1830, →OCLC, page 287, column 1

   1 more example

   None of the questions directed at Chavalit [Yongchaiyudh] were serious enough to make him think before he delivered his beat-around-the-bush response. He put the nation in deep shame – again – with his unenlightened skimble-skamble.

   1997 September 4, Sopon Onkgara, “One man, one draft, lots of gibberish”, in The Nation, Bangkok: Nation Pub. Group, →OCLC, page A4, column 3

   Synonyms: absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, apple grease, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls