hugger-mugger

[ huhg-er-muhg-er ]
See synonyms for hugger-mugger on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. disorder or confusion; muddle.

  2. secrecy; reticence: Why is there such hugger-mugger about the scheme?

adjective
  1. secret or clandestine.

  2. disorderly or confused.

verb (used with object)
  1. to keep secret or concealed; hush up.

verb (used without object)
  1. to act secretly.

Origin of hugger-mugger

1
First recorded in 1520–30; earlier hucker-mucker, rhyming compound based on mucker, from Middle English mokeren “to hoard”

Words Nearby hugger-mugger

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hugger-mugger in a sentence

  • But they were taking no steps for this purpose; they were content with social hugger-mugger.

  • Mr Bethany tossed the hugger-mugger of pamphlets across the table.

    The Return | Walter de la Mare
  • Still, everything drifts on to these hugger-mugger large enterprises; Chicago spreads over the world.

    The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman | H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
  • They can't do it,—by Act of Parliament,—except in a hugger-mugger left-handed way, that wouldn't suit you at all.

    The Duke's Children | Anthony Trollope
  • All that set you were brought up in—why, one only had to look at them to see what a hugger-mugger way they probably lived.

    Vera | Elisabeth von Arnim

British Dictionary definitions for hugger-mugger

hugger-mugger

/ (ˈhʌɡəˌmʌɡə) /


noun
  1. confusion

  2. rare secrecy

adjective, adverbarchaic
  1. with secrecy

  2. in confusion

verbobsolete
  1. (tr) to keep secret

  2. (intr) to act secretly

Origin of hugger-mugger

1
C16: of uncertain origin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012