hugger-mugger

• huggermugger

Of unknown origin; perhaps from Anglo-Irish cuggermugger (“a whispering, a low-voiced gossiping”), from Irish cogair (“whisper”). Compare also Swedish mjugg.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhʌɡ.əˌmʌɡ.ə/, /ˌhʌɡ.əˈmʌɡ.ə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhʌɡ.ɚˌmʌɡ.ɚ/

hugger-mugger (comparative more hugger-mugger, superlative most hugger-mugger)

1. Secret, clandestine, sly.
2. Disorderly, chaotic, confused.

   hugger-mugger doings

• See also Thesaurus:covert

hugger-mugger (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Secrecy.
   • Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 4, scene 5
   • We have done but greenly in hugger-mugger to inter him.
   • Fuller:

     Many things have been done in hugger-mugger.

2. Disorder.
   • 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (Canongate 2006), page 990:

     As we passed through the quadrangle the church was glowing more brightly than a pearl, like a lily in strong sunlight, in spite of all the scaffolding and hugger-mugger.

hugger-mugger (comparative more hugger-mugger, superlative most hugger-mugger)

1. Secretly.
2. Confusedly, in a muddle.