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Webster 1913 Edition

Hurry

Hur′ry

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Hurried
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Hurrying
.]
[OE.
horien
; cf. OSw.
hurra
to whirl round, dial. Sw.
hurr
great haste, Dan.
hurre
to buzz, Icel.
hurr
hurly-burly, MHG.
hurren
to hurry, and E.
hurr
,
whir
to hurry; all prob. of imitative origin.]
1.
To hasten; to impel to greater speed; to urge on.
Impetuous lust
hurries
him on.
South.
They
hurried
him abroad a bark.
Shakespeare
2.
To impel to precipitate or thoughtless action; to urge to confused or irregular activity.
And wild amazement
hurries
up and down
The little number of your doubtful friends.
Shakespeare
Syn. – To hasten; precipitate; expedite; quicken; accelerate; urge.

Hur′ry

,
Verb.
I.
To move or act with haste; to proceed with celerity or precipitation;
as, let us
hurry
.
To hurry up
,
to make haste.
[Colloq.]

Hur′ry

,
Noun.
The act of hurrying in motion or business; pressure; urgency; bustle; confusion.
Syn. – Haste; speed; dispatch. See
Haste
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Hurry

HUR'RY

,
Verb.
T.
[L. curro.]
1.
To hasten; to impel to greater speed; to drive or press forward with more rapidity; to urge to act or proceed with more celerity; as, to hurry the workmen or the work. Our business hurries us. The weather is hot and the load heavy; we cannot safely hurry the horses.
2.
To drive or impel with violence.
Impetuous lust hurries him on to satisfy the cravings of it.
3.
To urge or drive with precipitation and confusion; for confusion is often caused by hurry.
And wild amazement hurries up and down
The little number of your doubtful friends.
To hurry away, to drive or carry away in haste.

HUR'RY

,
Verb.
I.
To move or act with haste; to proceed with celerity or precipitation.
The business is urgent; let us hurry.

HUR'RY

,
Noun.
A driving or pressing forward in motion or business.
1.
Pressure; urgency to haste.
We cannot wait long; we are in a hurry.
2.
Precipitation that occasions disorder or confusion.
It is necessary sometimes to be in haste, but never in a hurry.
3.
Tumult; bustle; commotion.
Ambition raises a tumult in the soul, and puts it into a violent hurry of thought.

Definition 2024

hurry

hurry

English

Noun

hurry ‎(countable and uncountable, plural hurries)

  1. Rushed action.
    Why are you in such a big hurry?‎
    • 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, OCLC 519072825, page 202:
      At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […]
  2. Urgency.
    There is no hurry on that paperwork.‎
  3. (sports) In American football, an incidence of a defensive player forcing the quarterback to act faster than the quarterback was prepared to, resulting in a failed offensive play.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

hurry ‎(third-person singular simple present hurries, present participle hurrying, simple past and past participle hurried)

  1. (intransitive) To do things quickly.
    He's hurrying because he's late.‎
    • 1915, George A. Birmingham, “chapter I”, in Gossamer (Project Gutenberg; EBook #24394), London: Methuen & Co., published 8 January 2013 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 558189256:
      There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. […] Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors. Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess:
      When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.
  2. (intransitive) Often with up, to speed up the rate of doing something.
    If you don't hurry you won't finish on time.‎
  3. (transitive) To cause to be done quickly.
  4. (transitive) To hasten; to impel to greater speed; to urge on.
  5. (transitive) To impel to precipitate or thoughtless action; to urge to confused or irregular activity.
    • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
      And wild amazement hurries up and down / The little number of your doubtful friends.

Synonyms

  • See also Wikisaurus:rush

Translations

See also

Etymology

From Middle English horien ‎(“to rush, impel”), probably a variation of Middle English hurren ‎(“to vibrate rapidly, buzz”), from Proto-Germanic *hurzaną ‎(“to rush”) (compare Middle High German hurren ‎(“to hasten”), Norwegian hurre ‎(“to whirl around”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers-, *ḱors- ‎(“to run, hurry”) (compare Welsh carrog ‎(“torrent”), Latin currō ‎(“I run”), Tocharian A/B kursär/kwärsar ‎(“league; course”), Lithuanian karsiù ‎(“to go quickly”)). Related to hurr, horse, rush.

Alternative etymology derives hurry as a variant of harry, which see.

Pronunciation

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