hell west and crooked

• IPA^(key): /hɛl wɛst ənd ˈkɹʊkɪd/

hell west and crooked (not comparable)

1. (US, Australia) All over the place; every which way.
   • 1921, William MacLeod Raine, Gunsight Pass‎, page 52:

     When he and Bob knocked Steelman′s plans hell west and crooked after that yellow skunk George Doble betrayed me to Brad, the boy lost his boots in the brush.

   • 1922, Elbert Hubbard, Selected Writings of Elbert Hubbard‎, page 310:

     “ You see, Parson Brown, your stock is all mixed in and scattered hell-west and crooked ways, so you′ll jest have to pick out what′s handy. Is that all right ? ”

   • 1992, Tom Cole, “Riding the Wildman Plains”, in The Tom Cole Omnibus, Pan Macmillan Australia, published 2003, page 109:

     24 October 1934 — Wednesday
     Mustering the plant horses all day. Now we have stopped shooting they are scattering about Hell West and Crooked.

   • 2005, Private Albert Franklin Edwards (Canadian Infantry), Two Years in the Ypres Salient, Henry L. Fox (editor), What the Boys Did Over There: Allied Overseas Stories, page 53,

     When it was exploded it blew up the entire town and also blew 61000 Huns “Hell, west and crooked.”

   • 2007, Rowhan Marshall, A Walk on the Wild Side‎, page 45:

     Unfortunately Les arrived by 4WD to check up on our progress, only to find most of us sound asleep in the shade. He gave us a good revving and sent us hell, west and crooked to forage for bush tucker.

   • 2011, R.M. Winn, Bury Me Vertical, unnumbered page:

     They then scattered half a dozen scraggy chooks hell, west and crooked.