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Helter-skelter
Definitions
- 1 Carelessly hurried and confused.
"After World War II, from 1945 until the early 1960s, the helter-skelter growth of the reprint industry went largely unheeded by the general publishing industry, then under its own mounting pressures to publish new works for a growing reading public and ever-larger numbers of educational institutions."
- 1 with undue hurry and confusion wordnet
- 2 lacking a visible order or organization wordnet
- 1 In confused, disorderly haste.
"The winds knocked huge trees helter-skelter all over my garden."
- 1 haphazardly wordnet
- 1 Confusion or turmoil. countable, uncountable
"‘I hardly know, — I imagine that it was with some dim idea of Marjorie’s being able to get in if she returned while I was absent, — but the truth is I was in such a condition of helter skelter that I am not prepared to swear that I had any reasonable reason.’"
- 2 An amusement ride consisting of a slide that spirals down around the exterior of a tapering central tower. British, countable, uncountable
"He is finishing, this week, a remarkable thing called a helter skelter: This is a circular building 50 feet high which people climb, by means of an interior winding stair. At the top they each take a seat in a semicircular wooden trough which curls around the outside of the house, gradually leading towards the ground with a terrific rush, they slide down this and are rapidly delivered on to the grass below."
Etymology
In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten ("to hasten; to raise an alarm"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.
In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten ("to hasten; to raise an alarm"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.
In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten ("to hasten; to raise an alarm"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.
See also for "helter-skelter"
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