hugger-mugger

• huggermugger

Unknown; 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/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhʌɡ.ɚˌmʌɡ.ɚ/

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

1. Secret, clandestine, sly.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:covert

2. Disorderly, chaotic, confused.

   hugger-mugger doings

   • 1923 October, Robert Frost, “[Notes.] The Star-splitter.”, in New Hampshire […], New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 27:

     So Brad McLaughlin mingled reckless talk
     Of heavenly stars with hugger-mugger farming,
     Till having failed at hugger-mugger farming,
     He burned his house down for the fire insurance
     And spent the proceeds on a telescope […]

   • 2020 September 1, Tom Lamont, “The butcher's shop that lasted 300 years (give or take)”, in The Guardian‎:

     There were densely tenanted houses on the main road, pigsties hugger-mugger with people, fireplace ashes thrown out at night.

hugger-mugger (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Secrecy.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], page 273, column 2:

     […] ; and we haue done but greenly
     In hugger mugger to interre him.

   • 1660, Thomas Fuller, “Not invisible”, in Mixt Contemplations in Better Times, London: […] R[oger] D[aniel] for Iohn Williams, […], →OCLC, page 74:

     Many things have been done in Hugger mugger in our Age, prophane perſons conceited that their privacy protected them from divine inſpection.

2. Disorder.
   • 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 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.

   • 2013 September 10, Michiko Kakutani, “A Calamity Tailor-Made for Internet Conspiracy Theories”, in New York Times‎:

     Portentous events and lots of huggermugger quickly proliferate, as they always in Pynchon-land: a dead body turns up near the pool in a famous Upper West Side building; […]

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

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

hugger-mugger (third-person singular simple present hugger-muggers, present participle hugger-muggering, simple past and past participle hugger-muggered)

1. To meet or act secretly.