helter-skelter vs melee

helter-skelter

noun
  • Confusion or turmoil. 

  • A helical fairground slide. 

adj
  • Carelessly hurried and confused. 

adv
  • In confused, disorderly haste. 

melee

noun
  • A loud, confused or tumultuous fight, argument or scrap. 

  • A cavalry exercise in which two groups of riders try to cut paper plumes off the helmets of their opponents, the contest continuing until no member of one group retains his plume. 

  • Lively contention or debate, skirmish. 

  • A battle fought at close range, (especially) one not involving ranged weapons; hand-to-hand combat; brawling. 

  • Any confused, disorganised, disordered or chaotic situation. 

  • Small cut and polished gemstones sold in lots. 

verb
  • To physically hit in close quarters, as opposed to shooting, blowing up, or other ranged means of damage. Often refers to the usage of a hand-to-hand weapon. 

adj
  • Of a weapon: used in close-range combat. 

How often have the words helter-skelter and melee occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )