Definition of "hurtle"

(transitive, archaic)

1. To propel or throw (something) hard or violently; to fling, to hurl.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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; […]Used to mean “to brandish, to wave”.]

     , London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 42, page 283

   • 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 & Hall, […], page 190

   • Away, thou east wind, snarling like a scold! / […] / Now, like sheep-shearer, from some mountain fold, / Thou hurtlest air with twisting, fleecy flakes / Of martial snow, that like a tyrant bold, / His pleasure in his neighbour's vineyard takes, / Nor careth for the wreck that everywhere he makes.

     1882, Charles Miller, “The Delaying Spring”, in The Three Scholars and Other Poems, Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot, […], page 58

2. 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.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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, […], book IX (The Bones of the Dead), page 8

3. (figuratively) To attack or criticize (someone) verbally or in writing.  examples

(intransitive)

1. To move rapidly, violently, or without control, especially in a noisy manner.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • His gorgeous ryder from her loftie ſted / VVould haue caſt dovvne, and trodd in durty myre, / Had not the Gyaunt ſoone her ſuccoured; / VVho all enrag'd vvith ſmart and frantick yre, / Came hurtling in full fiers, and forſt the knight retyre.

     1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 17, page 119

   • [O]ne Herbertus Biſhop of the ſea of Norvvich, hearing of the gangs of good fellovves, that hurtled and buſtled thither, as thicke as it had beene to the ſhrine of Saint Thomas a Becket, or our Ladie of VValſingham, builded a certaine Chappell there for the ſeruice of God, and ſalutation of ſoules.

     1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], page 10

   • No sooner were the Gorgons broad awake, than they hurtled upward into the air, brandishing their brass talons, gnashing their horrible tusks, and flapping their huge wings so wildly, that some of the golden feathers were shaken out, and floated down upon the snow.

     1851 June–July (date written), Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Gorgon’s Head”, in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, published November 1851 (indicated as 1852), pages 47–48

2. (archaic)

   1. 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.  quotations  examples

      Quotations

      • 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 ſtart.

        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] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, stanza 41, page 101

   2. To make a sound of things clashing or colliding together; to clatter, to rattle; hence, to move with such a sound.  quotations  examples

      Quotations

      • 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] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii], page 117, column 1

      • 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. Ward; and sold by J[ames] Dodsley, […]; and J. Todd, […], published 1775, stanza 1, page 44

      • [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 James Ballantyne and Co. […], page 321

      • 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 Men.”, in For the Oracles of God, Four Orations. For Judgment to Come, an Argument, in Nine Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] T. Hamilton, […], page 535

      • [D]ownward rifting / Mountain rocks to valley swards, / There to meet the earthquake sound / Hurtling 'neath the hollow ground!— […]

        1838, Elizabeth B. Barrett [i.e., Elizabeth Barrett Browning], “The Seraphim”, in The Seraphim, and Other Poems, London: Saunders and Otley, […], part II, page 75

      • A rushing hiss follows, and the rain hurtles through the branches, driving so horizontally as to pass overhead.

        1880, Richard Jefferies, “Hodge’s Fields.”, in Hodge and His Masters […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], page 118

   3. (figuratively) Of two people, etc.: to meet in a shocking or violent encounter; to clash; to jostle.  examples

(countable) An act of colliding with or hitting; a collision.  quotations  examples

(countable, also figuratively) A rapid or uncontrolled movement; a dash, a rush.  quotations  examples

(countable) A sound of clashing or colliding; a clattering, a rattling.  quotations  examples

(uncountable, figuratively) (Violent) disagreement; conflict.  examples

(obsolete, rare) Synonym of hurtleberry or whortleberry (“any of several shrubs belonging to the genus Vaccinium; a berry of one of these shrubs”)  quotations