pell-mell

pell–mell

adjective

Definition of PELL-MELL

1

acting or done with excessive or careless speed <when the theater doors opened, there was a pell-mell rush for the best seats>

Synonyms cursory, drive-by, flying, gadarene, headlong, helter-skelter, hurried, overhasty, pell-mell, precipitate, precipitous, rash, rushed

Related Words breakneck, breathtaking; headstrong, heady, hotheaded, impatient, impetuous, impulsive, madcap, reckless, unadvised; quick, rapid, speedy, swift; horseback, impromptu, makeshift, offhand, offhanded, off-the-cuff, rush, slapdash, snap, spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment; abrupt, sudden

Near Antonyms calculated, calculating, measured; circumspect, foresighted, forethoughtful; drawn-out, extended, long-term, prolonged; faltering, hesitant, hesitating, tentative; dallying, dawdling, laggard, leisurely, poky (or pokey), shilly-shallying, slow

Antonyms deliberate, unhurried, unrushed

2

lacking in order, neatness, and often cleanliness <pell-mell piles of books everywhere in the professor's library>

Synonyms chaotic, cluttered, confused, disarranged, disarrayed, disheveled (or dishevelled), disordered, disorderly, higgledy-piggledy, hugger-mugger, jumbled, littered, messed, muddled, mussed, mussy, pell-mell, rumpled, sloppy, topsy-turvy, tousled, tumbled, unkempt, untidy, upside-down

Related Words bedraggled, befouled, begrimed, bemired, besmirched, blackened, cruddy, dingy, dirty, draggled, filthy, foul, grimy, grotty [chiefly British], grubby, grungy, mucky, nasty, smudged, soiled, spotted, squalid, stained, sullied, unclean, uncleanly; dowdy, frowsy (or frowzy), shaggy, slatternly, sloven, slovenly, uncombed; wrinkled; adulterated, contaminated, defiled, polluted, tainted; knotted, snarled, tangled; seedy, shabby, sleazy, sordid; neglected, neglectful, negligent

Near Antonyms antiseptic, clean, cleaned, cleanly, hygienic, immaculate, sparkling, spick-and-span (or spic-and-span), spotless, stainless, unsoiled, unsullied; methodical (also methodic), regular, systematic, systematized; careful, fastidious, finicky, fussy, meticulous; combed, groomed, manicured, well-groomed; taintless, undefiled, unpolluted, untainted, wholesome

Antonyms bandbox, crisp, kempt, neat, neatened, ordered, orderly, organized, shipshape, snug, tidied, tidy, trim, uncluttered, well-ordered

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