hugger-mugger, also huggermugger \HUGG-ur-MUGG-ur\,
adjective:
1. Secret; clandestine; sly.
2. Confused; disorderly; slovenly; mean; as, hugger-mugger doings.
I followed him to that hugger-mugger cabin he had hidden in the oaks
on the other side of
the swale and nipped behind the trees.
--Roy Parvin, The Loneliest Road in America
No hugger-mugger doings for me!
--M. Robinson, Angelina
I'd rather, ten times over, live hugger-mugger fashion, as we are now.
--Frances Trollope
In a kindly and polite yet very huggermugger cottage.
--Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences
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The origin of hugger-mugger is unknown; perhaps it is from Anglo-Irish cuggermugger,
a whispering, a low-voiced gossiping, from Irish cogair, whisper!.