pell-mell, adv. (a., n., v.)
(ˈpɛlˈmɛl, with shifting stress)
Also 6 peale meale, peale-meale, 6–7 pel mell, pel mel, pel-mel, 6–8 pelmell, pesle mesle, pesle-mesle, (8 pezle mezle), 6–9 pell mell (7 pel-mell, pell-mel, pelmel, 7–8 pall-mall), 7–9 pellmell, 8–9 pêle mêle, 9 pêle-mêle.
[a. F. pêle-mêle, in OF. pesle mesle (12th c.), pelle-melle (14th c.), for which also mesle-pesle, melle-pelle, mesle-mesle, brelle-mesle (12th c.). The element mesle, mêle was app. the stem of the vb. mesler, mêler to mix, mingle; the origin of pêle is uncertain; Diez queried pelle, pèle shovel, or paele pan, as if mixed together with a shovel, or in a pan; but the various forms in OF. suggest merely riming combinations formed on mesle, mêle, as in tire-lire, Eng. namby-pamby, etc.]
1. With disorderly or confused mingling; in a confused medley; together in disorder, without any order; in mingled confusion, promiscuously.
| 1596 Z. I. tr. Lavardin's Hist. Scanderbeg 162 The men lay wallowing all along vnder their tentes, pell mell amongst their horses. a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. viii. (1642) 540 Nor were men and women intermingled pell mell in their Synagogues. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 283 Then the Guns went off Pell Mell on all hands. 1766 Pennant Zool. (1768) II. 448 Assuming the shape of a wedge..for they [wild geese] cut the air the readier in that form than if they flew pelmell. 1814 Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 242 We should now have been all living, men, women, and children, pell-mell together. 1840 Carlyle Heroes ii. (1858) 233 Shoulder-blades of mutton, flung pellmell into a chest. 1849 Grote Greece ii. xxxviii. V. 34 After whom, with an interval of two furlongs, the remaining host followed pell⁓mell. 1867 M. E. Herbert Cradle L. x 267 The dead and the dying were huddled pell-mell together. |
b. Said of pursuers and pursued.
| 1579–80 North Plutarch (1676) 129 He entred amongst them that fled into their Camp pelmell, or hand over head. 1603 Knolles Hist Turks (1621) 91 Fearing lest the enemie in that hurly burly should pell mell enter in with the rest. 1677 Lond. Gaz. No. 1181/4 [They] were so closely followed, that our Soldiers entred with them pell-mell into the City. 1713 Ibid. No. 5106/2 The Turks and Tartars entred Pellmell among the Swedes. 1859 Green Oxf. Stud. i. (O.H.S.) 14 [They] rushed pell-mell with the fugitives into the city. |
c. Of combatants: Without keeping ranks; hence, at close quarters, hand to hand, man to man; in a mêlée.
| 1579 Digges Stratiot. 105 If at anye time they should come to the sword, or ioyne peale meale with their Enimies. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres Gloss. 251 Pel mell, a French word, and signifieth the mingling of men together, buckling by the bosome one with another. 1663 Butler Hud. i. iii. 506 To come pell-mell to handi-Blows. 1733 Fielding Don Quixote in Eng. iii. xi, There they are at it pell-mell; who will be knocked on the head I know not. 1767 Sterne Tr. Shandy IX. xxvi, To attack the point of the advanced counterscarp, and pêle mêle with the Dutch to take the counterguard of St. Roch sword in hand. |
† 2. Without discrimination, indiscriminately; in the mass. Obs.
| 1586 Holinshed Chron. (1808) IV. 912 To be an actor in a tragedie of bloudshed and slaughter universallie, pesle mesle to be perpetrated. 1600 Holland Livy xxxiv. liv. 883 These plaies and games haue been beheld and looked upon pell mell, without any such precise difference. 1606 Bp. W. Barlow Serm. 21 Sept. D iv, Bishops were not made χύδην pell-mell, at all aduentures. 1657 W. Morice Coena quasi κοινή v. 50 Their way of excluding men pell-mell, and in the lump. a 1659 Bp. Brownrig Serm. (1674) I. x. 133 God sometimes punishes a Nation pell mell. |
3. In disorder and hurry; with vehement onset; with a rush; in headlong haste; headlong, recklessly: often referring to the action of a single person.
| 1594 Kyd Cornelia v. 266 The murdring Enemie Pesle⁓mesle pursued them like a storme of hayle. 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 97 One Master Heath..set vpon it and answered it in Print pell mell. 1677 A. Yarranton Eng. Improv. 194 Two Books which were so fitted to the Countrey-mans capacity, that he fell on Pell-Mell. a 1734 North Lives (1826) III. 109 Finding his brother falling thus pell-mell into affairs of trade. Ibid. 372 Their university learning fell in pesle mesle with their prescriptions. 1784 F. Burney Diary 3 Nov., I have not had an unpleasant thought that I have not driven away pellmell. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 223, I went to work pell-mell, blotted several sheets of paper with choice floating thoughts. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xii. (1856) 90 We were an absurd party of zealots, rushing pell-mell upon the floes with vastly more energy than discretion. 1878 Masque Poets 97 ‘Repent yourself’, the Nephew sneers, And at it goes pell mell. |
B. adj. (ˈpɛlmɛl) Disorderly and violent, tumultuous; confused, promiscuous, indiscriminate.
| 1585 Jas. I Ess. Poesie (Arb.) 17 Syne Phifers, Drummes, and Trumpets cleir do craue The pelmell chok with larum loude alwhair. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, v. i. 82 Moody Beggars, staruing for a time Of pell-mell hauocke, and confusion. 1657 Tomlinson Renou's Disp. Pref., The thundring and pell-mell Granadoes of impertinent contradiction. 1817 J. Scott Paris Revisited (ed. 4) 157 The pell-mell rout of the French has been described in a variety of publications. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 935 This is a pell-mell classification. |
C. n. Promiscuous or indiscriminate mingling; confusion, disorder; a confused mixture or crowd, a medley; a hand-to-hand fight, a mêlée.
| 1598 Barret Theor. Warres iii. i. 36 The dagger is a weapon of great aduantage in Pell mell. 1600 E. Blount Ganzoni's Hosp. Inc. Fooles a j b, Lord, what a pell-mell of conceit and inuention you shall discouer. 1657 W. Morice Coena quasi κοινή v. 50 The old impure way of Pell-mell tends to many evils. 1831 J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXIX. 307 Thunderbolts pursue the pell-mell of the panic. 1849 Clough Dipsychus ii. iv. 68 High deeds Haunt not the fringy edges of the fight But the pell-mell of men. 1884 Tennyson Becket Prol., The Church in the pell-mell of Stephen's time Hath climb'd the throne and almost clutch'd the crown. |
D. v. trans. To mingle confusedly or indiscriminately; to mix up in disorder. rare. Hence pell-melling vbl. n.
| 1606 W. Birnie Kirk-Buriall (1833) 31 They pel-mell the dead with the living all in one kirk. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Fam. Epist. Wks. (1711) 147 The game ended, kings, queens, bishops, knights, pawns, pell-melled are confusedly thrown into the box. 1792 Brackenridge Mod. Chivalry (1846) 23 In times of chivalry though there was a great deal of pell-melling, yet no such disorderly work. |