Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To rush; hurry; dash along. Compare helter-skelter.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb colloq. To run off helter-skelter; to hurry; to scurry; -- with away or off.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb colloquial To run off helter-skelter; to hurry; to scurry.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Compare helter-skelter.

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Examples

  • He blamed Skinner for his etymology for helter-skelter from the Anglo-Saxon words for the darkness of hell: "Hell, says he, being a place of confusion."

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IX No 3 1983

  • On one Manhattan block Sunday, sanitation trucks with front loaders were busy clearing snow, but garbage bins outside apartment buildings were filled to overflowing, and bags of recyclable beer bottles and milk cartons were stacked helter-skelter along with discarded Christmas trees and wreaths.

    NYC trash pickup resumes, a week after blizzard 2011

  • It was put together in a casual, helter-skelter sort of way.

    CHAPTER IV 2010

  • On the helter-skelter main roads in these villages and towns we pass by tiendas offering everything from toothpaste to tomatoes or a farmacia where you can purchase drugs that don't require taking out a bank loan, although it might be useful to check their expiry dates.

    Free riding the roads of Mexico 2010

  • Nature has been killing helter-skelter, indiscriminately and massively forever.

    AlaskaDispatch.com: Massive Bird, Fish Kills in Alaska -- No One Noticed AlaskaDispatch.com 2011

  • They go for steals and get you in this helter-skelter, frantic mode.''

    The Knicks Do Too Play Defense Kevin Clark 2011

  • Given the pace of cultural change in the helter-skelter postwar boom, it would be an incongruously long reign.

    Splatter-Day Saints 2010

  • It was like climbing the wrong way up a helter-skelter; we got to the top and stood on the parapet waiting to jump.

    On the Chain Gang « Write Anything 2009

  • On the helter-skelter main roads in these villages and towns we pass by tiendas offering everything from toothpaste to tomatoes or a farmacia where you can purchase drugs that don't require taking out a bank loan, although it might be useful to check their expiry dates.

    Free riding the roads of Mexico 2010

  • Nature has been killing helter-skelter, indiscriminately and massively forever.

    AlaskaDispatch.com: Massive Bird, Fish Kills in Alaska -- No One Noticed AlaskaDispatch.com 2011

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