pell-mell

Meanings

1. 1
   adv

   in a confused, disorderly rush, without plan or restraint

   The crowd ran pell-mell toward the station when the gates opened.

2. 2
   adj

   hasty, jumbled, and uncontrolled

   Their pell-mell retreat left equipment scattered across the road.

Borrowed from French pele-mele, from Old French pesle-mesle, a rhyming expression built around mesler, "to mix or meddle." The related English words melee and meddle reflect the same historical family of mixing and confusion.

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