hurtle

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To propel or throw (something) hard or violently

   To propel or throw (something) hard or violently; to fling, to hurl.

   • He hurtled the wad of paper angrily at the trash can and missed by a mile.
   • Soone as thoſe glitterand armes he did eſpye, / That vvith their brightneſſe made that darknes light, / His harmefull club he gan to hurtle hye, / And threaten batteill to the Faery knight; […]
   • Such a curse on my head, in a manifest dread, / From the hand of your Zeus has been hurtled along!
2. 2

   To cause (someone or something) to collide with or hit another person or thing

   To cause (someone or something) to collide with or hit another person or thing; or (two people or things) to collide with or hit each other.

   • Only in solitude could that strong man give way to his emotions; and at first they rushed forth so confused and stormy, so hurtling one the other, that hours elapsed before he could serenely face the terrible crisis of his position.
3. 3

   To attack or criticize (someone) verbally or in writing.

4. ›+ 10 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To move rapidly, violently, or without control, especially in a noisy manner.

      • The car hurtled down the hill at 90 miles per hour.
      • Pieces of broken glass hurtled through the air.
   2. 5

      Of a person or thing

      Of a person or thing: to collide with or hit another person or thing, especially with force or violence; also, of two people or things: to collide together; to clash.

   3. 6

      To make a sound of things clashing or colliding together

      To make a sound of things clashing or colliding together; to clatter, to rattle; hence, to move with such a sound.

      • The noiſe of Battell hurtled in the Ayre: / Horſſes do neigh, and dying men did grone, / And Ghoſts did ſhrieke and ſqueale about the ſtreets.
      • Now the Storm begins to lovver, / (Haſte, the loom of Hell prepare,) / Iron-ſleet of arrovvy ſhovver / Hurtles in the darken'd air.
      • [T]he infantry / Deliberately with slow and steady step / Advanced; the bow-strings twang'd, and arrows hiss'd, / And javelins hurtled by.
   4. 7

      Of two people, etc.

      Of two people, etc.: to meet in a shocking or violent encounter; to clash; to jostle.

   5. 8

      An act of colliding with or hitting

      An act of colliding with or hitting; a collision.

      • I flung closer to his breast, / As sword that, after battle, flings to sheathe; / And, in that hurtle of united souls, / The mystic motions which in common moods / Are shut beyond our sense, broke in on us, […]
   6. 9

      A rapid or uncontrolled movement

      A rapid or uncontrolled movement; a dash, a rush.

      • [T]he war woke me up, I began to move left, and recent events have accelerated that move until it is now a hurtle.
      • Jamba has removed from [Christopher] Marlowe's Doctor Faustus all but the barest of essentials – even half its title, leaving us with an 80-minute hurtle through Faustus's four and twenty borrowed years on earth.
   7. 10

      A sound of clashing or colliding

      A sound of clashing or colliding; a clattering, a rattling.

      • There came a hurtle of wings, a flash of bright feathers, and a great pigeon with slate-grey plumage and a neck bright as an opal, lit on a swaying finial.
   8. 11

      (Violent) disagreement

      (Violent) disagreement; conflict.

   9. 12

      Synonym of hurtleberry or whortleberry (“any of several shrubs belonging to the genus…

      Synonym of hurtleberry or whortleberry (“any of several shrubs belonging to the genus Vaccinium; a berry of one of these shrubs”).

      • Vaccinia nigra, the blacke VVhortle, or Hurtle, is a baſe and lovve tree, or vvoodie plant, bringing foorth many branches of a cubite high, ſet full of ſmall leaues, of a darke greene colour, […]
   10. 13

       Misspelling of hurdle.

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