| 释义 |
▪ I. hugger-mugger, n., a., and adv.|ˈhʌgəˈmʌgə(r)|
Forms: 6 hukermoker, hoker moker, hocker-mocker, (also 9 dial.) huckermucker, hugger mucker, 6–7 hucker mucker, 6– hugger mugger, hugger-mugger, huggermugger.
[This is the commonest of a group of reduplicated words of parallel forms and nearly synonymous meaning, including hudder-mudder, Sc. hudge-mudge, and obs. hody-moke. Nothing definite appears as to their derivation or origin, and it is not unlikely that they came from different sources, and influenced each other. An early form, more usual in 16th c., was hucker-mucker (hoker-moker), the second element of which may have been the ME. vb. mukre, mokere-n to hoard up, conceal, whence mukrere, mokerere hoarder, miser (cf. sense 1 b). Whether hucker had an independent existence (cf. the prec. words), or was merely a riming variation, cannot at present be determined. The change to hugger-mugger was phonetically easy and natural, but may have been helped by the influence of hudder-mudder, which was app. of different origin.]
A. n.
1. Concealment, secrecy; esp. in phr. in hugger-mugger: in secret, secretly, clandestinely. Formerly in ordinary literary use, now archaic or vulgar.
1529More Dyaloge ii. 52 b/2 He wolde haue hys faythe dyuulged and spredde abrode openly, not alwaye whyspered in hukermoker. Ibid. iv. 121 b/1 Suche thyngys..these heretyques teche in hucker mucker. 1539Taverner Gard. Wysed. i. 26 a, It shal be done moche better in open courte, and in the face of al the world, then in hugger mugger. 1553Becon Reliques of Rome (1563) 129 The wordes of the Lordes Supper..were not spoken in hocker mocker..but playnely, openlye and distinctly. c1590in Acc. & Pap. relating to Mary Q. of Scots (Camden) 114 Secreatlie demeasned, or handled in hugger mucker, or rufflid up in hast. 1601Holland Pliny II. 563 Say that this is done in secret and hucker mucker. 1602Shakes. Ham. iv. v. 84. 1633 Ford 'Tis Pity iii. i, There is no way but to clap up the marriage in hugger-mugger. 1678Butler Hud. iii. iii. 123 In Hugger-mugger hid. a1734North Lives III. 314 The good old lady..took him into hugger-mugger in her closet, where she usually had some good pye or plumb cake. 1836Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) IV. 91 The resolution that the voting in Committee shall take place in ‘hugger⁓mugger’. 1874Motley Barneveld I. iv. 226 The trial was all mystery, hugger-mugger, horror.
b. One who keeps things hidden or in secret; a hoarder or miser. (? erroneous use.)
1862Trollope N. Amer. I. 289 Nor is the New Yorker a hugger-mugger with his money. He does not hide up his dollars in old stockings, and keep rolls of gold in hidden pots.
2. Disorder, confusion; a medley, muddle.
1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 74 An hugger-mugger of meddlesom beings all at jars. 1867Carlyle Remin. II. 174 Huggermugger was the type of his [L. Hunt's] economics. 1871Smiles Charac. ii. (1876) 54 Muddle flies before it, and hugger-mugger becomes a thing unknown. 1887S. Chesh. Gloss. s.v., My pleeces bin aw i sich a huckermucker I'm..asheemed o' annybody gooin' in 'em.
B. adj.
1. Secret; clandestine.
1692tr. Sallust 330 What hugger mugger Funerals of Citizens, what sudden Massacres committed in the very Arms of Parents and Children. 1754Richardson Grandison xliv. (1781) VI. 282 No hugger mugger doings! Let private weddings be for doubtful happiness! 1796M. Robinson Angelina II. 127 No hugger-mugger doings for me!
2. Rough and disorderly, confused, makeshift.
1840F. Trollope Widow Married xix, I'd rather, ten times over, live hugger-mugger fashion, as we are now. 1853Jerdan Autobiog. IV. xii. 213 You find matters..so clumsily set out, that you fare in the style called hugger⁓mugger. 1866Carlyle Remin. (1881) I. 203 In a kindly and polite yet very huggermugger cottage. 1883S. C. Hall Retrospect II. 315 The household was supplied in a hugger⁓mugger fashion.
C. adv.
1. Secretly, clandestinely; ‘in hugger-mugger’.
1526Skelton Magnyf. 392 Thus is the talkyng of one and of oder As men dare speke it hugger-mugger. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Hugger-mugger, Closely or by Stealth, Under board.
2. In rough disorder or confusion; in a muddle.
1880Tennyson Village Wife xviii, Hugger-mugger they lived, but they wasn't that eäsy to pleäse. 1894Daily Graphic 3 May 7 The Reformation..left our Church system, as regards the appointment of the clergy, all hugger mugger.
▪ II. hugger-mugger, v.
[f. prec.]
1. trans. To keep secret or concealed; to hush up.
1803M. Charlton Wife & Mistress IV. 25 His uncle..had saved a mort of money..and behold, it was all hugger muggered away. 1862N.Y. Tribune 1 June (Bartlett), That is a venial offence, to be hugger-muggered up. 1891Atkinson Last Giant-killers 105 That..plunder..which..you keep hugger-muggered up in..your cave. 1898Daily News 5 Apr. 3/1 For two years the City Corporation tried to hugger-mugger this nasty little incident out of sight.
2. intr.
a. To proceed in a secret or clandestine manner; esp. to meet or assemble in this manner.
b. To go on in a confused or muddled way.
1805Morn. Herald in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1806) IX. 356 It's a shame to hugger-mugger on without making a little figure now and then. 1862N.Y. Tribune 25 Feb. (Bartlett), Listening to key-hole revelations, and hugger-muggering with disappointed politicians. 1879McCarthy Donna Quixote III. vii, She won't stand much more of you and me hugger-muggering together. 1887M. B. Betham-Edwards Next of Kin Wanted I. viii. 110 Let the whole lot hugger⁓mugger together—old maids, Jesuits, saints, sinners. |