helter-skelter
advEtymology
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.
Definitions
In confused, disorderly haste.
- The winds knocked huge trees helter-skelter all over my garden.
- Pellets, once released from the funnel, would bounce helter-skelter, left or right, against the pins […] to ultimately gather in the lower compartments in a pile which resembles a normal curve.
Carelessly hurried and confused.
- Although his existential thoughts seem to have been tossed onto the page in helter-skelter fashion, what Gilboa does here is to open his mind and heart to the reader through verbal jaggedness and poetic unneatness.
Confusion or turmoil.
- (Oh, oh, oh) / I'm looking for some shelter / (Oh, oh, oh) / From the helter-skelter / (Oh, oh, oh) / Just keep me away from / All who conspire / (Enemy fire...)
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
An amusement ride consisting of a slide that spirals down around the exterior of a…
An amusement ride consisting of a slide that spirals down around the exterior of a tapering central tower.
- For gentler sliding fun, you can take a ride on the helter-skelter.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for helter-skelter. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA