purler

purler noun: a headlong fall or tumble.

Noun (1)

purler (plural purlers)

(UK, colloquial) A headlong fall or tumble.
- He came a purler on the icy path.
- Dilston and Savernake: the latter led, and turned, but in trying to kill came down a purler, which completely knocked all the go out of him; Dilston took possession of the hare, and kept it, winning the course in hollow style.1869, “Stonehenge” (editor), The Coursing Calendar for the Autumn Season 1868, Containing Returns of All the Public Courses Run in Great Britain snd Ireland, page 172
(UK, colloquial) A knockdown blow; a blow that causes a person to fall headlong.
- [The horse] falling with a mighty crash, gave him a purler on the opposite side, and was within an ace of striking him dead with his hoof in frantic struggles to recover.1867, Ouida [pseudonym; Maria Louise Ramé], “The End of a Ringing Run”, in Under Two Flags: A Story of the Household and the Desert. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 119
Synonyms:

king hit

purler (plural purlers)

(Australia, colloquial) Something extremely good.
- The greatest game ever played is the one marketed with that tag by Australian Football Video: the 1989 round 6 match at Prince's Park between Hawthorn and Geelong, an awesome display of the skills of the game. It is doubtful whether two such great sides had ever graced a single season as the Hawks...2000 May 12, peter.ryan, “Top3 best games of all time”, in aus.sport.aussie-rules (Usenet)
- And just when I had a slight thought that there could be a "Lets be nice to George Week"
  And you come along with that purler.2008 December 24, George W, “Best way to transport wreck Syd-Tsv.”, in aus.motorcycles (Usenet)

மிகுதுயர்

‘You could hold the ladder,’ Mart said, ‘see I don′t come a purler.’2003, Susan Hill, The Boy Who Taught The Beekeeper To Read: The Boy Who Taught The Beekeeper To Read: And Other Stories, published 2011...
The return match in September was a bit of a purler too, as I recall.2000 May 12, peter.ryan, “Top3 best games of all time”, in aus.sport.aussie-rules (Usenet):

plural	purlers
alternative form	pearler

From purl (“a fall”).

Uncertain.

What does purler mean?: Purler means a headlong fall or tumble.
What is purler in Tamil?: Purler in Tamil is மிகுதுயர். See Purler meaning in Tamil.
How do you use purler in a sentence?: ‘You could hold the ladder,’ Mart said, ‘see I don′t come a purler.’
What part of speech is purler?: Purler is a noun.
What is the plural of purler?: The plural of purler is purlers.

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

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-purler.ogg.

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