Word.ws English Dictionary

hurtle

Syllables: hurt·le/ˈhɜːtl̩/US/ˈhɜɹt(ə)l/

hurtle verb: to propel or throw (something) hard or violently; to fling, to hurl. Also the misspelling of hurdle.

hurtle: to propel or throw (something) hard or violently; to fling, to hurl
Image: Elbunitkrasniqi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

hurtle (third-person singular simple present hurtles, present participle hurtling, simple past and past participle hurtled)

  1. (archaic, literary, poetic, transitive) 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; […][1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42, page 283
  2. (archaic, literary, poetic, transitive) 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.1848, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VI, in Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings; […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, book IX (The Bones of the Dead), page 8
  3. (archaic, figuratively, literary, poetic, transitive) To attack or criticize (someone) verbally or in writing.
  4. (intransitive, literary, poetic) 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.
    Synonyms:
    hightail, move quickly, skedaddle
  5. (archaic, intransitive, literary, poetic) 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.
    • Yet could not all that force and furie ſhake / The valiant champions, nor their perſons vvound, / Together hurtled both their ſteedes, and brake / Each others necke, the riders lay on ground: / But they (great maſters of vvars dreadfull art) / Pluckt forth their ſvvords and ſoone from earth vp...1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The Sixth Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold]...
  6. (archaic, intransitive, literary, poetic) 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.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • Now the Storm begins to lovver, / (Haſte, the loom of Hell prepare,) / Iron-ſleet of arrovvy ſhovver / Hurtles in the darken'd air.1761 (date written), [Thomas] Gray, “Ode VIII. The Fatal Sisters. From the Norse Tongue.”, in The Poems of Mr. Gray. […], York, Yorkshire: […] A[nn] Ward; and sold by J[ames] Dodsley, […]; and J[ohn]...
  7. (archaic, figuratively, intransitive, literary, poetic) Of two people, etc.: to meet in a shocking or violent encounter; to clash; to jostle.

Noun (1)

hurtle (countable and uncountable, plural hurtles)

  1. (countable, literary, poetic) 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, […]1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Ninth Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 398
  2. (also, countable, figuratively, literary, poetic) 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.1975, William Howard Gass, quotee, “GASS, WILLIAM H(OWARD)”, in John Wakeman, editor, World Authors 1950–1970 […] (Authors Series), New York, N.Y.: The H[alsey] W[illiam] Wilson Company, →ISBN, page...
    • 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.2005 June 20, “(please specify the article title)”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC
  3. (countable, literary, poetic) 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.1913, Eden Phillpotts, chapter IV, in Widecombe Fair, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 26
  4. (figuratively, literary, poetic, uncountable) (Violent) disagreement; conflict.

Noun (2)

hurtle (plural hurtles)

  1. (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”).
    • 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, […]1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of Whortes, or Whortle berries”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, →OCLC, book...

Also used as

hurtle is also the misspelling of hurdle.

Examples of hurtle in a sentence

  • Such a curse on my head, in a manifest dread, / From the hand of your Zeus has been hurtled along!1850, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Prometheus Bound. From the Greek of Æschylus.”, in Poems. […], new edition, volume I, London: Chapman &...
  • Here in Franklin Bay during our first season we hurtle along at 20 knots, dodging ice floes littering the surface.1989 May, Jeff MacInnis, “Braving the Northwest Passage”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 588:
  • [T]he infantry / Deliberately with slow and steady step / Advanced; the bow-strings twang'd, and arrows hiss'd, / And javelins hurtled by.1814, Robert Southey, “Canto XXV”, in Roderick the Last of the Goths, London: […] [F]or Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], by...
  • The greater number abandon their untenable position of hardihood, and seek a shelter when the terrible storm hurtleth in the heavens, and they see its dismal preparation.1823, Edward Irving, “Of Judgment to Come. Part IX. The Review of the Whole Argument, with an Endeavour to Bring It home to the Sons of...

All 30 example sentences with hurtle

Synonyms of hurtle

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of hurtle

Forms of hurtle

Verb
third-person singular presenthurtles
present participlehurtling
past participlehurtled
pasthurtled
second-person singular present (archaic)hurtlest
second-person singular past (archaic)hurtledst
third-person singular present (archaic)hurtleth
Noun
pluralhurtles

Origin of hurtle

The 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). The noun is derived from the verb.

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)”).

See hurdle.

Words formed from hurtle

Words that rhyme with hurtle

Questions about hurtle

What does hurtle mean?
Hurtle means to propel or throw (something) hard or violently; to fling, to hurl.
How do you use hurtle in a sentence?
Such a curse on my head, in a manifest dread, / From the hand of your Zeus has been hurtled along!
What part of speech is hurtle?
Hurtle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce hurtle?
Hurtle is pronounced /ˈhɜːtl̩/ (UK).
What is the past tense of hurtle?
The past tense of hurtle is hurtled.

Words near hurtle in the dictionary

  1. hurting for
  2. hurting someone's feelings
  3. hurtingest
  4. hurtingly
  5. hurtings
  6. hurtle
  7. hurtleberries
  8. hurtleberry
  9. hurtled
  10. hurtler
  11. hurtlers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hurtle (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)-AcpoKrane-hurtle.wav.

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