You use helter-skelter to describe something that is hurried and disorganized, especially when things happen very quickly, one after the other. He now faces another crisis in his helter-skelter existence. Helter-skelter is also an adverb. a panic-stricken crowd running helter-skelter to get away from the tear gas. a tall structure in a fairground which you sit on at the top and slide round and round to the bottom