skelter
- adverb
- Archaic
- The children ran helter skelter through the playground, laughing and shouting as they played.
Examples
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When you ride a horse, if you let the reins of the horse a little too loose, the horse goes haywire, runs helter skelter all over the place.
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During the fire drill, everyone left the building helter skelter, trying to follow the emergency exit signs.
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The agents of the Kingdom of Darkness of the lower worlds were running helter skelter seeking what to do to know when the end of time would be.
-
When you ride a horse, if you let the reins of the horse a little too loose, the horse goes haywire, runs helter skelter all over the place.
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As the storm approached, people rushed helter skelter to their cars to escape the rain.
Synonyms
In a confused, hurried way
In a confused, messy way with no order
In a messy, mixed-up way with things in no order
In a confused, hurried way with no order
Being confused and disorganized
In a messy, untidy way
Everywhere in a hurried, messy way like people searching quickly
Antonyms
Idioms
Compounds
How Hurried
Surface Forms
Etymology
Skelter comes from the older rhyming phrase helter-skelter, which people used to mean 'in a wild, confused way'. So skelter as an adverb keeps that idea of moving quickly and in disorder.