untidiness

Lawlessness (or "untidiness," as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the mayhem and looting in Baghdad) will reign until American troops can restore order and the Iraqis can form some kind of government.

The Secret War 2007

It now seems likely that much of the looting and plundering that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld dismissed as mere "untidiness," the inevitable concomitant of the coming of democracy, constituted the first stage of a carefully planned "war beyond the war."

Iraq: The New War Danner, Mark 2003

The origins in Zamyatin may explain any emphasis on sex, and the presence of a not-very-strong love interest has its partial outcome in a kind of untidiness but also in opening the door to tragedy - indeed, to Tragedy.

Stone Pastorals: Three Men on the Side of the Horses 1996

This goes on in spite of a reciprocal untidiness which is indescribable; for the English poor children have the very dirtiest faces in the world, unless the Scotch have dirtier ones; but nothing, no spotting or thick plastering of filth, can obscure their inborn sweetness.

London Films William Dean Howells 1878

Little errors have crept in, the kind of untidiness you do not expect from them; catches have been dropped, edges have gone through slips, fumbles here and there.

Cricinfo news from Cricinfo 2010

Myrtle and Mrs. Hemlock are bursting simultaneously with the uncontrollable urge to gossip about the breathaking "untidiness" of their rich frenemy Jessie Mae-and with Mrs. Hemlock's icebox full of homemade fudge bars.

Emdashes 2009

'untidiness' in the choreography of the restructuring of the balance sheets of the financial institutions.

RTÉ News 2010

Failure to meet deadlines, failure to return phone calls, untidiness, etc.

Gretchen Rubin: 6 Questions to Help You Keep Your Cool Instead of Losing Your Temper Gretchen Rubin 2011

Failure to meet deadlines, failure to return phone calls, untidiness, etc.

Gretchen Rubin: 6 Questions to Help You Keep Your Cool Instead of Losing Your Temper Gretchen Rubin 2011

But preserving some of the untidiness of the process -- the scribbled out bits -- makes it clear (hopefully) that the process is in some way improvisational.

Talking Comics with Tim: Anders Nilsen | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment 2009