higgledy-piggledy
1
9.9
- adverb
- /ˈhɪɡəldi ˈpɪɡəldi/
- Informal
:
desordenadamente
- After a long day, my papers were spread higgledy-piggledy across my desk.
I think it won't really tell me much about them because people's life experience throw those numbers into such higgledy piggledy.
- I think it won't really tell me much about them because people's life experience throw those numbers into such higgledy piggledy.
Examples
-
I ran higgledy-piggledy all over creation looking for you.
-
No wonder everything's higgledy-piggledy here.
-
I was used to recycling, even in the neo-industrial North, but I had never seen such a higgledy-piggledy assortment before.
Fiction book (1999) -
Papers, notes, and foolscap pages seemed to have burst higgledy-piggledy from each one, obscuring those behind it.
Fiction book (2000) -
Kneeling, Amanda gathered up the grass snake and folded it into the box where the little pots of paint lay higgledy-piggledy.
Fiction book (1997) -
Then he saw how old, small, and defeated he was, facing the winter, facing the merriest season of the year with all his goods, cameras, reflectors, lens boxes, piled up higgledy-piggledy in the overloaded wagon.
Fiction book (1993) -
She uses her fins to blow sand grains onto each sticky egg as it is expelled and then places the eggs individually on the clutch in a higgledy-piggledy way.
Academic text (1993) -
The toys were left higgledy-piggledy all over the living room floor.
-
The children ran through the garden, leaving the blossoms higgledy-piggledy in their wake.
Synonyms
9
6.1
In a way that is not planned or organized
9
9.9
Messy and not organized
9
1.6
Something that is untidy and not in order
5
2.9
In a careless, untidy way that makes things messy
1
5.6
In a wild, disordered way
1
7.5
Mixed up and in a messy, confused state
1
1.4
In a messy way that leaves food or paint everywhere
1
7.3
In a confused, messy way with no order
1
3.4
In a messy way that is not neat
In a messy, disorganized way
Being confused and disorganized
In a messy, untidy way
In a confused, hurried way with no order
In a confused, messy way
Antonyms
How Messy
Surface Forms
Etymology
Higgledy-piggledy comes from two playful rhymes, higgledy and piggledy, like simple pairs such as 'easy-peasy', which people used long ago in English to make a funny sound. It gives the image of things thrown together, so higgledy-piggledy means 'in a disorderly or chaotic way'.