Word.ws English Dictionary

hurlyburly

hurlyburly noun: a noisy and disorderly tumult and confusion, especially as of battle.

Noun

hurlyburly (countable and uncountable, plural hurlyburlies)

  1. (idiomatic) A noisy and disorderly tumult and confusion, especially as of battle.
    • ...for nought is ceaſſed and gone already, what an hurlyburly (?) inconvenience ſhoulde followe or it maye be eaſely perceived.1550, Steuen Mierdman, The market or fayre of usurers
    • 1. When ſhall we three meet againe? / In Thunder, Lightning, or in Raine? / 2. When the Hurly-burley's done, / When the Battaile's loſt, and wonne.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Adjective

hurlyburly (comparative more hurlyburly, superlative most hurlyburly)

  1. (idiomatic) Full of disorder or noisy confusion.
    • "I understand the circus that it is," Springer says of the hurly-burly mob scene that often overtakes his show.1998, Aileen Joyce, Jerry Springer: For The First Time Ever, It All Hangs Out!, page 12

hurlyburly meaning in Tamil

hurlyburly in Tamil

குழப்பம், விதுப்பு

Forms of hurlyburly

Noun
pluralhurlyburlies
alternative formhurly-burly
Adjective
comparativemore hurlyburly
superlativemost hurlyburly

Origin of hurlyburly

Likely an altered reduplication of hurling (“a tumult”). Compare Swedish huller om buller.

Questions about hurlyburly

What does hurlyburly mean?
Hurlyburly means a noisy and disorderly tumult and confusion, especially as of battle.
What is hurlyburly in Tamil?
Hurlyburly in Tamil is குழப்பம், விதுப்பு. See Hurlyburly meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is hurlyburly?
Hurlyburly can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of hurlyburly?
The plural of hurlyburly is hurlyburlies.

Words near hurlyburly in the dictionary

  1. hurly-burly
  2. hurly-burlying
  3. hurly-hacket
  4. hurly-hackets
  5. hurlyburlies
  6. hurlyburly
  7. Hurmuz
  8. Hurn
  9. Hurnard
  10. Hurns
  11. Huron

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hurlyburly (page history and authors); hurlyburly (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-hurlyburly.oga.

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