hugger-mugger
Appearance
See also: huggermugger
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Unknown; perhaps from Anglo-Irish cuggermugger (“a whispering, a low-voiced gossiping”), from Irish cogair (“whisper”). Compare also Swedish mjugg.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈhʌɡ.əˌmʌɡ.ə/, /ˌhʌɡ.əˈmʌɡ.ə/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈhʌɡ.ɚˌmʌɡ.ɚ/
Adjective
[edit]hugger-mugger (comparative more hugger-mugger, superlative most hugger-mugger)
- Secret, clandestine, sly.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:covert
- Disorderly, chaotic, confused.
- hugger-mugger doings
- 1923 October, Robert Frost, “[Notes.] The Star-splitter.”, in New Hampshire […], New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 27:
- So Brad McLaughlin mingled reckless talk
Of heavenly stars with hugger-mugger farming,
Till having failed at hugger-mugger farming,
He burned his house down for the fire insurance
And spent the proceeds on a telescope […]
- 2020 September 1, Tom Lamont, “The butcher's shop that lasted 300 years (give or take)”, in The Guardian[1]:
- There were densely tenanted houses on the main road, pigsties hugger-mugger with people, fireplace ashes thrown out at night.
Derived terms
[edit]Noun
[edit]hugger-mugger (uncountable)
- (archaic) Secrecy.
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], page 273, column 2:
- […] ; and we haue done but greenly
In hugger mugger to interre him.
- Disorder.
- 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 990:
- As we passed through the quadrangle the church was glowing more brightly than a pearl, like a lily in strong sunlight, in spite of all the scaffolding and hugger-mugger.
- 2013 September 10, Michiko Kakutani, “A Calamity Tailor-Made for Internet Conspiracy Theories”, in New York Times[2]:
- Portentous events and lots of huggermugger quickly proliferate, as they always in Pynchon-land: a dead body turns up near the pool in a famous Upper West Side building; […]
Adverb
[edit]hugger-mugger (comparative more hugger-mugger, superlative most hugger-mugger)
- Secretly.
- Confusedly, in a muddle.
Verb
[edit]hugger-mugger (third-person singular simple present hugger-muggers, present participle hugger-muggering, simple past and past participle hugger-muggered)
- To meet or act secretly.
Categories:
- English terms with unknown etymologies
- English terms derived from Irish
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English multiword terms
- English terms with collocations
- English terms with quotations
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English terms with archaic senses
- English adverbs
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- English rhyming phrases