Word.ws English Dictionary

hurkle-durkle

hurkle-durkle verb: to lounge in bed for an excessive period of time; to bed rot.

Verb

hurkle-durkle (third-person singular simple present hurkle-durkles, present participle hurkle-durkling, simple past and past participle hurkle-durkled)

  1. (Internet, intransitive) To lounge in bed for an excessive period of time; to bed rot.
    • She [Devrie Brynn] went on to note that she isn't being "lazy" or "wasting her day" when she hurkle-durkles. Instead, she sees it as practicing an "ancestral rite of passage" while "connecting with her culture and heritage." And honestly, her speech is inspiring.2024 January 31, Carolyn Steber, “On TikTok, Bed Rotting Is Out & Hurkle-Durkling Is In”, in Bustle, archived from the original on 05 Feb 2024
    • The study, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, found that people who snoozed regularly got additional sleep and were more cognitively alert upon waking, despite the disturbed sleep.
      So hurkle-durkle to your heart's desire — it's self-care, after all.2024 February 14, Brooke Steinberg, “Why Scottish people love to 'hurkle-durkle' — and how this sleep habit is good for your health”, in New York Post, New York, N.Y.: News Corp, →ISSN, →OCLC...

Forms of hurkle-durkle

third-person singular presenthurkle-durkles
present participlehurkle-durkling
past participlehurkle-durkled
pasthurkle-durkled

Origin of hurkle-durkle

Borrowed from Scots hurkle-durkle (“to lounge in bed”), from hurkle. The term was introduced into English after lexicographer Susie Dent began spreading awareness of the term in 2015, and went viral on TikTok in 2024.

Questions about hurkle-durkle

What does hurkle-durkle mean?
Hurkle-durkle means to lounge in bed for an excessive period of time; to bed rot.
What part of speech is hurkle-durkle?
Hurkle-durkle is a verb.
What is the past tense of hurkle-durkle?
The past tense of hurkle-durkle is hurkle-durkled.

Words near hurkle-durkle in the dictionary

  1. hurkarahs
  2. hurkaras
  3. hurkaru
  4. hurkarus
  5. hurkle
  6. hurkle-durkle
  7. hurkle-durkled
  8. hurkle-durkles
  9. hurkle-durkling
  10. hurkled
  11. hurkles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hurkle-durkle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-hurkle-durkle.wav.

Cite this entry: “hurkle-durkle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hurkle-durkle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.