Indistinguishable in speech, the words hurtle and hurdle can be a confusing pair.
Hurtle is a verb with two meanings: "to move rapidly or forcefully," as in "The stone was hurtling through the air," and "to hurl or fling," as in "I hurtled the stone into the air." Note that the first use is intransitive: the stone isn't hurtling anything; it itself is simply hurtling. The second use is transitive: something was hurtled—in this case, a stone.
Hurdle is both a noun and a verb. As a noun, its most common meanings have to do with barriers: the ones that runners leap over, and the metaphorical extension of these, the figurative barriers and obstacles we try to similarly overcome. The verb hurdle has two meanings, and they are directly related to these. It can mean "to leap over especially while running," as in "She hurdled the fence," and it can mean "to overcome or surmount," as in "They've had to hurdle significant financial obstacles." The verb hurdle is always transitive; that is, there's always a thing being hurdled, whether it be a physical obstacle or a metaphorical one.
Boulders hurtled down the hill.
We kept to the side of the road as cars and trucks hurtled past us.
The protesters hurtled bottles at the police.
He hurtled himself into the crowd.
Recent Examples on the WebThe storm was hurtling north-northeast at 16 mph with sustained winds of 35 mph.—Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 9 July 2024 After destroying houses, downing power lines and killing at least 10 in its path through the Caribbean, Beryl was hurtling toward Matagorda Bay on the Gulf Coast of Texas, between Corpus Christi and Galveston, with sustained winds of 65 mph.—Praveena Somasundaram, Washington Post, 7 July 2024 In general, the bigger the rocket, the bigger the pieces that come hurtling back down to the ground.—Ramin Skibba, Rolling Stone, 6 July 2024 Within a few seconds of pressing the record button on her phone’s camera, the leeches were once again hurtling themselves through the air.—Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for hurtle
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hurtle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Middle English hurtlen to collide, frequentative of hurten to cause to strike, hurt
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