mugger : Idioms & Phrases

• verb act stealthily or secretively
  

WordNet

• noun a state of confusion
  
  • he engaged in the hugger-mugger of international finance
• adjective satellite in utter disorder
  topsy-turvy; disorderly; jumbled; higgledy-piggledy.
  
  • a disorderly pile of clothes
• adjective satellite conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods
  clandestine; secret; hole-and-corner; surreptitious; underground; cloak-and-dagger; hush-hush; undercover.
  
  • clandestine intelligence operations
  • cloak-and-dagger activities behind enemy lines
  • hole-and-corner intrigue
  • secret missions
  • a secret agent
  • secret sales of arms
  • surreptitious mobilization of troops
  • an undercover investigation
  • underground resistance
• adverb in secrecy
  
  • they did it all hugger-mugger

WordNet

Hug"ger-mug`ger noun

Etymology

Scot. huggrie-muggrie; Prov. E. hugger to lie in ambush, mug mist, muggard sullen.

Definitions

1. Privacy; secrecy. Commonly in the phrase in hugger-mugger, with haste and secrecy. Archaic

   Many things have been done in hugger-mugger. Fuller.

Hug"ger-mug`ger adjective

Definitions

1. Secret; clandestine; sly.
2. Confused; disorderly; slovenly; mean; as, hugger-mugger doings.

Webster 1913