higgledy-piggledy
adverb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L191928 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈhɪɡəldiˌpɪɡəldi/
adj
Etymology: A reduplicated rhyming compound. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a possible link to pig, since the animals huddle in irregular groups, but notes that the connection is uncertain. First use appears c. 1598. The first part of the old alternative form, hoggledy-piggledy, may derive from the archaic Welsh hogldy, a hovel.
- In utter disorder or confusion; mixed up.
“I can't find your memo since my desk is all higgledy-piggledy.”
“The houses of the central village were quite unlike the casual and higgledy-piggledy agglomeration of the mountain villages he knew.”
adv
Etymology: A reduplicated rhyming compound. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a possible link to pig, since the animals huddle in irregular groups, but notes that the connection is uncertain. First use appears c. 1598. The first part of the old alternative form, hoggledy-piggledy, may derive from the archaic Welsh hogldy, a hovel.
- In 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.”
noun
Etymology: Self-reference to the form of the word higgledy-piggledy.
- 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.”
- 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.”