WIND TIME UP helter-skelter HEL-ter-SKEL-ter, adverb: 1. in headlong and disorderly haste: The children ran helter-skelter all over the house. 2. in a haphazard manner; without regard for order: Clothes were scattered helter-skelter about the room. adjective: 1. carelessly hurried; confused: They ran in a mad, helter-skelter fashion for the exits. 2. disorderly; haphazard: Books and papers were scattered on the desk in a helter-skelter manner. noun: 1. tumultuous disorder; confusion. The same obstacle appeared in a minor degree to cling about his verbal exposition, and accounted perhaps for his rather helter-skelter choice of remarks bearing on the number of unaddressed letters sent to the post-office… -- George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such, 1879 His enormous bellow of rage was the signal for Mrs. Hook to run helter-skelter down the alley to take up station in their traditional battleground at its entrance. -- John Moore, Portrait of Elmbury, 1945 The origin of helter-skelter is unknown, though it is perhaps onomatopoetic. It entered English in the late 1500s and employs a reduplicated rhyme similar to the words hurry-scurry and harum-scarum.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 04:35:57 +0000