pell-mell

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Adverb

CIDE DICTIONARY

pell-mell, n. 

 See Pall-mall.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

pell-mell, adv., adj., & n.
--adv.
1 headlong, recklessly (rushed pell-mell out of the room).
2 in disorder or confusion (stuffed the papers together pell-mell).
--adj. confused, tumultous.
--n. confusion; a mixture.

Etymology

F p{ecirc}le-m{ecirc}le, OF pesle mesle, mesle pesle, etc., redupl. of mesle f. mesler mix

THESAURUS

pell-mell

bedlam, brouhaha, chaos, chaotic, chaotically, commotion, confused, confusedly, confusion, disorder, disordered, disorderly, disorganized, excitement, feverish, feverishly, hastily, hasty, helter-skelter, hubbub, hurried, hurriedly, impetuous, impetuously, impulsive, impulsively, incautious, incautiously, mad, melee, pandemonium, panicky, precipitate, precipitately, rash, rashly, reckless, recklessly, slap-bang, slapdash, spontaneously, tumult, tumultuous, turmoil, wild, wildly