Grammar

2.105 long compound adjectives

A few compound adjectives are made up of more than two words. Compounds of three or more words are often written with hyphens when they are used in front of nouns and without hyphens when they are used as the complement of a link verb.

...the day-to-day chores of life.
...a down-to-earth approach.
...a free-and-easy relationship.
...life-and-death decisions.
...a trip to an out-of-the-way resort.
Their act is out of date.

2.106

Some compound adjectives seem rather odd because they contain words that are never used as single words on their own, for example 'namby-pamby', 'higgledy-piggledy', and 'topsy-turvy'. Words like these are usually informal.

...all that arty-crafty spiritualism.
...his la-di-da family.