"sixes and sevens" Definition

Definitions for the word "sixes and sevens" from multiple English dictionaries.

1. slang
articles in confusion are said to be all SIXES AND SEVENS. The Deity is mentioned in the _Towneley Mysteries_ as He that “set all on seven,” _i.e._, set or appointed everything in seven days. A similar phrase at this early date implied confusion and disorder, and from these, Halliwell thinks, has been derived the phrase “to be at SIXES AND SEVENS.” A Scotch correspondent, however, states that the phrase probably came from the workshop, and that amongst needle-makers, when the points and eyes are “heads and tails” (“heeds and thraws”), or in confusion, they are said to be SIXES AND SEVENS, because those numbers are the sizes most generally used, and in the course of manufacture have frequently to be distinguished.
Source: The Slang Dictionary, 1864

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