helter-skelter [
'heltә'skeltә]
helter-skelter[ adv ]- haphazardly
<adv.all>
the books were piled up helter-skelter
[ adj ]- lacking a visible order or organization
<adj.all>
- with undue hurry and confusion
<adj.all>
a helter-skelter kind of existence with never a pause
a pell-mell dash for the train
Helter-skelter \Hel"ter-skel"ter\, adv. [An onomat?poetic word.
Cf. G. holter-polter, D. holder de bolder.]
In hurry and confusion; without definite purpose;
irregularly. [Colloq.]
Helter-skelter have I rode to thee. --Shak.
A wistaria vine running helter-skelter across the roof.
--J. C.
Harris.
- But the price of this economic activity is a landscape marred by deforestation and erosion, a crush of roads and helter-skelter development, and the traffic and waste of 100 million annual visitors.
- Barnstorming the countryside in an unreliable Volkswagen bus, Mr. Cardenas had the sort of helter-skelter intensity that Americans have seen in Jesse Jackson's presidential bid.
- As Japan rebuilt itself helter-skelter on the rubble of World War II, people returning from China and Korea made a living peddling goods on the streets, moving to indoor premises when they had saved enough.