hurdles

Noun

hurdle (plural hurdles)

1. An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race.
   • He ran in the 100 metres hurdles.
2. (figuratively) An obstacle, real or perceived, physical or abstract.
   • My last stop was an outdoor speech to a huge crowd of Ukrainians whom I urged to stay on the course of freedom and economic reform. Kiev was beautiful in the late spring sunshine, and I hoped its people could keep up the high spirits I had observed in the crowd. They still had many hurdles to clear.2005, Bill Clinton, My Life, volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 588
3. A movable frame of wattled twigs, osiers, or withes and stakes, or sometimes of iron, used for enclosing land, for folding sheep and cattle, for gates, etc.; also, in fortification, used as revetments, and for other purposes.
   • The practice of folding sheep was general, and the purchase of hurdles was a regular charge in the shepherd's account.1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 414
4. (UK, historical) A sled or crate on which criminals were drawn to the place of execution.
   • In treason, the corporal punishment is by drawing on hurdle from the place of the prison to the place of execution, and by hanging and being cut down alive, bowelling, and quartering: and in women by burning.1550, Francis Bacon, “A Preparation Toward the Union of Laws”, in James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, Douglas Denon Heath, editors, The Works of Francis Bacon, volume VII, London: Longman, Green &...
5. A piece that is jumped over by a hopper piece.
   • Pieces that can move only by hopping over other pieces are termed Hoppers. It should be noted that hoppers capture in the usual way by eviction, they do not capture the hurdles over which they hop.
     The most popular hoppers are: The Equihopper (G. Leathem FCR 1938) which hops to the same distance...2010 August 21, G. P. Jelliss, “Simple Chess Variants”, in Mayhematics, page 10

See all 11 meanings of hurdle