Word Study
pell-mell
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Adjective pell-mell has 1 sense
- pell-mell(s = adj.all) helter-skelter - with undue hurry and confusion; "a helter-skelter kind of existence with never a pause"; "a pell-mell dash for the train"
Adverbial pell-mell has 1 sense
- pell-mell(r = adv.all) harum-scarum - in a wild or reckless manner; "dashing harum-scarum all over the place"; "running pell-mell up the stairs"
OXFORD DICTIONARY
pell-mell, adv., adj., & n.
--adv.
1 headlong, recklessly (rushed pell-mell out of the room).
2 in disorder or confusion (stuffed the papers together pell-mell).
--adj. confused, tumultous.
--n. confusion; a mixture.
--adv.
1 headlong, recklessly (rushed pell-mell out of the room).
2 in disorder or confusion (stuffed the papers together pell-mell).
--adj. confused, tumultous.
--n. confusion; a mixture.
Etymology
F p{ecirc}le-m{ecirc}le, OF pesle mesle, mesle pesle, etc., redupl. of mesle f. mesler mix
THESAURUS
pell-mell
bedlam, brouhaha, chaos, chaotic, chaotically, commotion, confused, confusedly, confusion, disorder, disordered, disorderly, disorganized, excitement, feverish, feverishly, hastily, hasty, helter-skelter, hubbub, hurried, hurriedly, impetuous, impetuously, impulsive, impulsively, incautious, incautiously, mad, melee, pandemonium, panicky, precipitate, precipitately, rash, rashly, reckless, recklessly, slap-bang, slapdash, spontaneously, tumult, tumultuous, turmoil, wild, wildly
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