pell-mell
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈpɛlˈmɛl/
Adjective

pell-mell

  1. Hasty and uncontrolled.
    • 1597, William Shakespeare, The First Part of King Henry the Fourth, Act V, Scene 1,
      Nor moody beggars, starving for a time / Of pellmell havoc and confusion.
    • 1883, Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society, Volume 4, page 204 ↗,
      These present the appearance of masses of water-worn gravel, mixed in the most pell mell confusion, the boulders being often of very large size; but I observed no striae, nor any of the blue tenacious clay of the Till, which it so much resembled.
    • 1924, Konrad Bercovici, Around the World in New York, page 134 ↗,
      The whole district presents the most pell-mell throwing together imaginable.
    • 1961, Charles J. Patterson, Letters relating to Africa south of the Sahara, especially to Nigeria, page 18 ↗,
      The pell mell, hell for leather traffic of Lagos was more pell mell, hell for leather than ever.
    • 2003, Audrey Joan Whitson, Teaching Places, page 50 ↗,
      The cattle are less disciplined, more pell-mell, heavy-footed, their hooves stamping the ground to mud in several places.
Translations
  • Russian: беспоря́дочный
Adverb

pell-mell (not comparable)

  1. In haste and chaos; uncontrolledly, confusedly.
    • 1861, George Wilkes, The Great Battle, page 27 ↗,
      Never was there a great battle fought more pell-mell, since war began; never was valor so completely thrown away.
    • 1905, Charles Sanford Terry, The Young Pretender, page 81 ↗,
      Pell-mell they rushed for Inverness and safety, leaving the strange battlefield to the stalwart five.
    • 1996, Rodney Hall, The Island in the Mind, page 400 ↗,
      And the prompter our payments the more pell-mell the news came in and the more obligingly gruesome its detail.
    • 2006, Marion Woods, Getting Ready, 2009, A Spiritual Journey Through Poetry with Marion Woods, page 48 ↗,
      Some are already packed up well; / Others are at it, most pell mell.
Translations Noun

pell-mell (uncountable)

  1. Alternative form of pall mall#English|pall mall (“ball game”)



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