hurtle
An act of colliding with or hittingAn act of colliding with or hitting; a collision.
» A car came hurtling towards us.
Meaning
5 senses(countable, literary, poetic)An act of colliding with or hitting; a collision.
(also, countable, figuratively, literary, poetic)A rapid or uncontrolled movement; a dash, a rush.
(countable, literary, poetic)A sound of clashing or colliding; a clattering, a rattling.
(figuratively, literary, poetic, uncountable)(Violent) disagreement; conflict.
(literary, obsolete, poetic, rare)Synonym of hurtleberry or whortleberry (“any of several shrubs belonging to the genus Vaccinium; a berry of one of these shrubs”).
Examples
5 sentencesA car came hurtling towards us.
The boomerang hurtled whistling through the air.
The big, yellow bus came hurtling down the street.
The avalanche hurtled tons of snow down the mountain.
The chimp's eyes narrowed, ready to hurtle the stone at the slightest provocation.
Origin
The verb is derived from Middle English hurtelen, hurtlen (“to cast, hurl, throw; to chargThe verb is derived from Middle English hurtelen, hurtlen (“to cast, hurl, throw; to charge at; to clash in combat, fight; to collide; to injure; to knock down; to propel, push, thrust; to rush; to stumble”) [and other forms], from hurten (“to injure, wound, hurt (physically or figuratively); to damage, impair; to hurt one’s feelings, humiliate; to receive an injury; to collide into; to propel, push, thrust; to stumble”) (see further at English hurt (verb)) + -el-, -elen (frequentative suffix). The English word is analysable as hurt (“(obsolete) to knock; to strike”) + -le (frequentative suffix).
Possibly a clipping of hurtleberry, from Middle English hurtil-beri (“bilberry or blue whortleberry (Vaccinium myrtillus); berry of this shrub”); further etymology unknown, compare Middle English horten, hurten (“bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)”), and Old English horte (“bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)”).
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Forms
plural: hurtlesSynonyms
3 synonymsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable