at sixes and sevens

Unknown, though it may have originated from the game of hazard and the Old French cinc (“five”) and sis (“six”), the riskiest numbers to shoot for, which were misheard and folk-etymologized into English as "six" and "seven".

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

at sixes and sevens

1. (idiomatic, UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) In a state of confusion.

   Synonym: all sixes and nines

   • 17th century, Thomas Ford, "Yet if His Majesty Our Sovereign Lord" (Christ Church MS. 736–8), first published by A. H. Bullen, Lyrics from the Song Books of the Elizabethan Age (1888):

     Yet if his majesty our sovereign lord
     Should of his own accord
     Friendly himself invite,
     And say "I'll be your guest to-morrow night."
     How should we stir ourselves, call and command
     All hands to work! Let no man idle stand. [...]
     For 'tis a duteous thing
     To show all honour to an earthly king,
     And after all our travail and our cost,
     So he be pleas'd, to think no labour lost.
     But at the coming of the King of Heaven
     All's set at six and seven:
     We wallow in our sin,
     Christ cannot find a chamber in the inn.
     We entertain him always like a stranger,
     And as at first still lodge him in the manger.

   • 1912, Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 23, in Poison Island:

     Oh, what a racket! And everything on deck apparently at sixes and sevens. Mail-bags and passengers mixed up in every direction.

   • 1972, Chang Kuo-tʻao, The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party 1928-1938‎^[1], volume II, University Press of Kansas, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 342:

     A few days after the battle started, we abandoned Pa-chung County. The enemy troops were elated and boasted of their victory. In fact, the loss of Pa-chung County was a great setback for us. The local people, seeing our departure, could not help wavering. Even those engaged in the work of the Soviet government were not altogether clear about the strategy of our army. They were at sixes and sevens, and some went to such lengths as to make preparations for the eventuality that the Red Army might back out of northern Szechwan.

2. (idiomatic, of people or groups) In a state of dispute or disagreement.

   Synonym: at loggerheads

   • 1911, Jack London, chapter 6, in Adventure:

     Her outlook on life was so different from what he conceived a woman's outlook should be, that he was more often than not at sixes and sevens with her.

   • 1976, Tim Rice, Don't Cry For Me Argentina:

     All you will see is a girl you once knew, although she's dressed up to the nines, at sixes and sevens with you.

• “at sixes and sevens”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Michael Quinion (2004) “At sixes and sevens”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.