Definition of "hugger-mugger" [hug•ger-mug•ger]

• Disorderly confusion; muddle. (noun)
• Secrecy; concealment. (noun)
• Disorderly; jumbled. (adjective)
• Secret; clandestine. (adjective)
• To keep secret; conceal. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But the rest are all hugger-mugger, and I like them that way."
• "The hugger-mugger squalor endured by the planet's traveling billions."
• "Brown may have tried to sign this wretched Treaty hugger-mugger back in December, out of sight and out of mind, but the truth of the matter is that he is in fact an EU enthusiast who has played a leading part in not just the drawing up of this Treaty but also the gerrymander that is seeing it through the process of ratification."