See helter-skelter in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
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{
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{
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"5": "make noise, yell"
},
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"name": "der"
}
],
"etymology_text": "In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten (\"to hasten; to raise an alarm\"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.",
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{
"form": "more helter-skelter",
"tags": [
"comparative"
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"hel‧ter-‧skel‧ter"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adv",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter II, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC, page 21:",
"text": "But the butterflies were dead. A whiff of rotten eggs had vanquished the pale clouded yellows which came pelting across the orchard and up Dods Hill and away on to the moor, now lost behind a furze bush, then off again helter-skelter in a broiling sun.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Deborah J. Bennett, Randomness, Harvard University Press, page 104:",
"text": "Pellets, once released from the funnel, would bounce helter-skelter, left or right, against the pins […] to ultimately gather in the lower compartments in a pile which resembles a normal curve.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
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"In confused, disorderly haste."
],
"id": "en-helter-skelter-en-adv-vduq-iv9",
"links": [
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"confused",
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],
[
"disorderly",
"disorderly"
],
[
"haste",
"haste#Noun"
]
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "obǎrkano",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "объркано"
},
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "bez red",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "без ред"
},
{
"code": "dag",
"lang": "Dagbani",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "balibali"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "hulter til bulter"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "holderdebolder"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "holterdiepolter"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "Hals über Kopf"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "nyakra-főre"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "hanyatt-homlok"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "mechamecha",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "めちゃめちゃ"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "bezładnie"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "na łeb, na szyję"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "a trouxe-mouxe"
},
{
"code": "gd",
"lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "amasgaidh"
},
{
"code": "gd",
"lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "uathrais air thairis"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˌhɛltɚˈskɛltɚ/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌhɛltəˈskɛltə/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
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"1": "en",
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{
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"name": "der"
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],
"etymology_text": "In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten (\"to hasten; to raise an alarm\"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.",
"forms": [
{
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"tags": [
"comparative"
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"expansion": "helter-skelter (comparative more helter-skelter, superlative most helter-skelter)",
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"hel‧ter-‧skel‧ter"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "The winds knocked huge trees helter-skelter all over my garden.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1972, Carol A. Nemeyer, Scholarly Reprint Publishing in the United States, New York, N.Y.: R. R. Bowker Co., →ISBN, page 7:",
"text": "After World War II, from 1945 until the early 1960s, the helter-skelter growth of the reprint industry went largely unheeded by the general publishing industry, then under its own mounting pressures to publish new works for a growing reading public and ever-larger numbers of educational institutions.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1994, Warren Bargad, \"To Write the Lips of Sleepers\": The Poetry of Amir Gilboa, page 232:",
"text": "Although his existential thoughts seem to have been tossed onto the page in helter-skelter fashion, what Gilboa does here is to open his mind and heart to the reader through verbal jaggedness and poetic unneatness.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Carelessly hurried and confused."
],
"id": "en-helter-skelter-en-adj-Lq12wqn3",
"links": [
[
"Carelessly",
"carelessly#English"
],
[
"hurried",
"hurried"
],
[
"confused",
"confused"
]
],
"related": [
{
"word": "willy-nilly"
},
{
"word": "pell-mell"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "obǎrkan",
"sense": "Carelessly hurried and confused",
"word": "объркан"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Carelessly hurried and confused",
"word": "holterdiepolter"
},
{
"code": "pdt",
"lang": "Plautdietsch",
"sense": "Carelessly hurried and confused",
"word": "droslich"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Carelessly hurried and confused",
"word": "bezładny"
},
{
"code": "gd",
"lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
"sense": "Carelessly hurried and confused",
"word": "amasgaidh"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
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"ipa": "/ˌhɛltɚˈskɛltɚ/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌhɛltəˈskɛltə/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
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}
],
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"name": "der"
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],
"etymology_text": "In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten (\"to hasten; to raise an alarm\"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "helter-skelters",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
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"head_templates": [
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"args": {
"1": "~"
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"expansion": "helter-skelter (countable and uncountable, plural helter-skelters)",
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"hyphenation": [
"hel‧ter-‧skel‧ter"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:",
"text": "‘I hardly know, — I imagine that it was with some dim idea of Marjorie’s being able to get in if she returned while I was absent, — but the truth is I was in such a condition of helter skelter that I am not prepared to swear that I had any reasonable reason.’",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2014, busbee, Meghan Kabir, “Enemy Fire”, in Young Blood, performed by Bea Miller:",
"text": "(Oh, oh, oh) / I'm looking for some shelter / (Oh, oh, oh) / From the helter-skelter / (Oh, oh, oh) / Just keep me away from / All who conspire / (Enemy fire...)",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Confusion or turmoil."
],
"id": "en-helter-skelter-en-noun-QWncmxHc",
"links": [
[
"Confusion",
"confusion#English"
],
[
"turmoil",
"turmoil"
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"tags": [
"countable",
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"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "bezporjadǎk",
"sense": "confusion or turmoil",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "безпорядък"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "sumatoha",
"sense": "confusion or turmoil",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "суматоха"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "gd",
"lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
"sense": "confusion or turmoil",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "giorna-giùirne"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
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"kind": "other",
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{
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{
"_dis": "5 7 6 81",
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{
"_dis": "6 8 6 80",
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{
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"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "11 14 7 68",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "5 10 6 78",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Dagbani translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "7 10 5 78",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Danish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "9 15 12 65",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Dutch translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "9 16 9 66",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with German translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "15 17 7 61",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Hungarian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "7 13 9 72",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Japanese translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "4 8 5 83",
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"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "16 14 9 61",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Polish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "12 20 6 63",
"kind": "other",
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{
"_dis": "16 13 7 64",
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"source": "w+disamb"
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{
"_dis": "11 14 7 68",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Ukrainian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "3 5 4 88",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Amusement rides",
"orig": "en:Amusement rides",
"parents": [
"Machines",
"Technology",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1905 September 30, The Independent, Footscray, Vic, page 2, column 4:",
"text": "He is finishing, this week, a remarkable thing called a helter skelter: This is a circular building 50 feet high which people climb, by means of an interior winding stair. At the top they each take a seat in a semicircular wooden trough which curls around the outside of the house, gradually leading towards the ground with a terrific rush, they slide down this and are rapidly delivered on to the grass below.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2015, Louise Spilsbury, Ride that Rollercoaster!, page 12:",
"text": "For gentler sliding fun, you can take a ride on the helter-skelter.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An amusement ride consisting of a slide that spirals down around the exterior of a tapering central tower."
],
"id": "en-helter-skelter-en-noun-xW-h2IP8",
"links": [
[
"slide",
"slide"
],
[
"spiral",
"spiral"
],
[
"exterior",
"exterior"
],
[
"taper",
"taper"
],
[
"central",
"central"
],
[
"tower",
"tower"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(chiefly British) An amusement ride consisting of a slide that spirals down around the exterior of a tapering central tower."
],
"tags": [
"British",
"countable",
"uncountable"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "1 99",
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "spirálʹna hírka",
"sense": "amusement ride",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "спіра́льна гі́рка"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
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"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌhɛltəˈskɛltə/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
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{
"rhymes": "-ɛltə(ɹ)"
}
],
"word": "helter-skelter"
}
{
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"English entries with incorrect language header",
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"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
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"English terms derived from Middle English",
"English terms derived from Old High German",
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"Pages with entries",
"Rhymes:English/ɛltə(ɹ)",
"Rhymes:English/ɛltə(ɹ)/4 syllables",
"Terms with Bulgarian translations",
"Terms with Dagbani translations",
"Terms with Danish translations",
"Terms with Dutch translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Hungarian translations",
"Terms with Japanese translations",
"Terms with Plautdietsch translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations",
"Terms with Scottish Gaelic translations",
"Terms with Ukrainian translations",
"en:Amusement rides"
],
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"1": "en",
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"name": "der"
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"name": "der"
}
],
"etymology_text": "In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten (\"to hasten; to raise an alarm\"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "more helter-skelter",
"tags": [
"comparative"
]
},
{
"form": "most helter-skelter",
"tags": [
"superlative"
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}
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],
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"lang_code": "en",
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"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
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{
"ref": "1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter II, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC, page 21:",
"text": "But the butterflies were dead. A whiff of rotten eggs had vanquished the pale clouded yellows which came pelting across the orchard and up Dods Hill and away on to the moor, now lost behind a furze bush, then off again helter-skelter in a broiling sun.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1998, Deborah J. Bennett, Randomness, Harvard University Press, page 104:",
"text": "Pellets, once released from the funnel, would bounce helter-skelter, left or right, against the pins […] to ultimately gather in the lower compartments in a pile which resembles a normal curve.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"In confused, disorderly haste."
],
"links": [
[
"confused",
"confused#Adjective"
],
[
"disorderly",
"disorderly"
],
[
"haste",
"haste#Noun"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˌhɛltɚˈskɛltɚ/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌhɛltəˈskɛltə/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav.ogg"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛltə(ɹ)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "obǎrkano",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "объркано"
},
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "bez red",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "без ред"
},
{
"code": "dag",
"lang": "Dagbani",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "balibali"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "hulter til bulter"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "holderdebolder"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "holterdiepolter"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "Hals über Kopf"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "nyakra-főre"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "hanyatt-homlok"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "mechamecha",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "めちゃめちゃ"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "bezładnie"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "na łeb, na szyję"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "a trouxe-mouxe"
},
{
"code": "gd",
"lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "amasgaidh"
},
{
"code": "gd",
"lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
"sense": "in confused, disorderly haste",
"word": "uathrais air thairis"
}
],
"word": "helter-skelter"
}
{
"categories": [
"English adjectives",
"English adverbs",
"English coordinated pairs",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English reduplications",
"English terms derived from Middle English",
"English terms derived from Old High German",
"English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European",
"English terms inherited from Middle English",
"English uncountable nouns",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Rhymes:English/ɛltə(ɹ)",
"Rhymes:English/ɛltə(ɹ)/4 syllables",
"Terms with Bulgarian translations",
"Terms with Dagbani translations",
"Terms with Danish translations",
"Terms with Dutch translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Hungarian translations",
"Terms with Japanese translations",
"Terms with Plautdietsch translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations",
"Terms with Scottish Gaelic translations",
"Terms with Ukrainian translations",
"en:Amusement rides"
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "skelten"
},
"expansion": "Middle English skelten",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "goh",
"3": "skeltan",
"4": "",
"5": "scold"
},
"expansion": "Old High German skeltan (“scold”)",
"name": "der"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*(s)kel-",
"4": "",
"5": "make noise, yell"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”)",
"name": "der"
}
],
"etymology_text": "In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten (\"to hasten; to raise an alarm\"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "more helter-skelter",
"tags": [
"comparative"
]
},
{
"form": "most helter-skelter",
"tags": [
"superlative"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "helter-skelter (comparative more helter-skelter, superlative most helter-skelter)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"hel‧ter-‧skel‧ter"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"related": [
{
"word": "willy-nilly"
},
{
"word": "pell-mell"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "The winds knocked huge trees helter-skelter all over my garden.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1972, Carol A. Nemeyer, Scholarly Reprint Publishing in the United States, New York, N.Y.: R. R. Bowker Co., →ISBN, page 7:",
"text": "After World War II, from 1945 until the early 1960s, the helter-skelter growth of the reprint industry went largely unheeded by the general publishing industry, then under its own mounting pressures to publish new works for a growing reading public and ever-larger numbers of educational institutions.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1994, Warren Bargad, \"To Write the Lips of Sleepers\": The Poetry of Amir Gilboa, page 232:",
"text": "Although his existential thoughts seem to have been tossed onto the page in helter-skelter fashion, what Gilboa does here is to open his mind and heart to the reader through verbal jaggedness and poetic unneatness.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Carelessly hurried and confused."
],
"links": [
[
"Carelessly",
"carelessly#English"
],
[
"hurried",
"hurried"
],
[
"confused",
"confused"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˌhɛltɚˈskɛltɚ/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌhɛltəˈskɛltə/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav.ogg"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛltə(ɹ)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "obǎrkan",
"sense": "Carelessly hurried and confused",
"word": "объркан"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Carelessly hurried and confused",
"word": "holterdiepolter"
},
{
"code": "pdt",
"lang": "Plautdietsch",
"sense": "Carelessly hurried and confused",
"word": "droslich"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Carelessly hurried and confused",
"word": "bezładny"
},
{
"code": "gd",
"lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
"sense": "Carelessly hurried and confused",
"word": "amasgaidh"
}
],
"word": "helter-skelter"
}
{
"categories": [
"English adjectives",
"English adverbs",
"English coordinated pairs",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English reduplications",
"English terms derived from Middle English",
"English terms derived from Old High German",
"English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European",
"English terms inherited from Middle English",
"English uncountable nouns",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Rhymes:English/ɛltə(ɹ)",
"Rhymes:English/ɛltə(ɹ)/4 syllables",
"Terms with Bulgarian translations",
"Terms with Dagbani translations",
"Terms with Danish translations",
"Terms with Dutch translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Hungarian translations",
"Terms with Japanese translations",
"Terms with Plautdietsch translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations",
"Terms with Scottish Gaelic translations",
"Terms with Ukrainian translations",
"en:Amusement rides"
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "skelten"
},
"expansion": "Middle English skelten",
"name": "inh"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "goh",
"3": "skeltan",
"4": "",
"5": "scold"
},
"expansion": "Old High German skeltan (“scold”)",
"name": "der"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*(s)kel-",
"4": "",
"5": "make noise, yell"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”)",
"name": "der"
}
],
"etymology_text": "In form a reduplication (similar to hurry-scurry and harum-scarum, both with initial /h-/ and /sk-/); perhaps based on Middle English skelten (\"to hasten; to raise an alarm\"), or maybe related to Old High German skeltan (“scold”) from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“make noise, yell”), employed as a fossil word.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "helter-skelters",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "~"
},
"expansion": "helter-skelter (countable and uncountable, plural helter-skelters)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"hel‧ter-‧skel‧ter"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:",
"text": "‘I hardly know, — I imagine that it was with some dim idea of Marjorie’s being able to get in if she returned while I was absent, — but the truth is I was in such a condition of helter skelter that I am not prepared to swear that I had any reasonable reason.’",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2014, busbee, Meghan Kabir, “Enemy Fire”, in Young Blood, performed by Bea Miller:",
"text": "(Oh, oh, oh) / I'm looking for some shelter / (Oh, oh, oh) / From the helter-skelter / (Oh, oh, oh) / Just keep me away from / All who conspire / (Enemy fire...)",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Confusion or turmoil."
],
"links": [
[
"Confusion",
"confusion#English"
],
[
"turmoil",
"turmoil"
]
],
"tags": [
"countable",
"uncountable"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"British English",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1905 September 30, The Independent, Footscray, Vic, page 2, column 4:",
"text": "He is finishing, this week, a remarkable thing called a helter skelter: This is a circular building 50 feet high which people climb, by means of an interior winding stair. At the top they each take a seat in a semicircular wooden trough which curls around the outside of the house, gradually leading towards the ground with a terrific rush, they slide down this and are rapidly delivered on to the grass below.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2015, Louise Spilsbury, Ride that Rollercoaster!, page 12:",
"text": "For gentler sliding fun, you can take a ride on the helter-skelter.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An amusement ride consisting of a slide that spirals down around the exterior of a tapering central tower."
],
"links": [
[
"slide",
"slide"
],
[
"spiral",
"spiral"
],
[
"exterior",
"exterior"
],
[
"taper",
"taper"
],
[
"central",
"central"
],
[
"tower",
"tower"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(chiefly British) An amusement ride consisting of a slide that spirals down around the exterior of a tapering central tower."
],
"tags": [
"British",
"countable",
"uncountable"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˌhɛltɚˈskɛltɚ/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˌhɛltəˈskɛltə/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Persent101-helter-skelter.wav.ogg"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɛltə(ɹ)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "bezporjadǎk",
"sense": "confusion or turmoil",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "безпорядък"
},
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "sumatoha",
"sense": "confusion or turmoil",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "суматоха"
},
{
"code": "gd",
"lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
"sense": "confusion or turmoil",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "giorna-giùirne"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "spirálʹna hírka",
"sense": "amusement ride",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "спіра́льна гі́рка"
}
],
"word": "helter-skelter"
}
Download raw JSONL data for helter-skelter meaning in English (15.4kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (95d2be1 and 64224ec). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.