higgledy-piggledy
adverb
[ ˌhɪɡ(ə)ldɪˈpɪɡ(ə)ldi ]
• in confusion or disorder.
• "bits of paper hung higgledy-piggledy on the furniture and walls"
Similar:
disordered,
disorderly,
untidy,
disorganized,
messy,
chaotic,
jumbled,
muddled,
confused,
unsystematic,
irregular,
cluttered,
littered,
out of order,
out of place,
in disarray,
in a mess,
in a jumble,
in a muddle,
upside-down,
at sixes and sevens,
haywire,
haphazard,
all over the place,
like a bomb's hit it,
shambolic,
all over the shop,
all over the map,
all over the lot,
orderless,
in disorder,
in a disorganized manner,
untidily,
haphazardly,
indiscriminately,
in confusion,
in a heap,
anyhow,
any old how,
pell-mell,
topsy-turvy,
every which way,
Opposite:
tidy,
ordered,
tidily,
in an orderly fashion,
higgledy-piggledy
adjective
• involving confusion or disorder.
• "a higgledy-piggledy mountain of newspapers"
Origin:
late 16th century: rhyming jingle, probably with reference to the irregular herding together of pigs.
