Library / English Dictionary

HURTLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Throw forcefully

Synonyms:

cast; hurl; hurtle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "hurtle" is one way to...):

throw (propel through the air)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hurtle"):

crash; dash (hurl or thrust violently)

precipitate (hurl or throw violently)

catapult; sling (hurl as if with a sling)

bowl (hurl a cricket ball from one end of the pitch towards the batsman at the other end)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sentence example:

They hurtle the object in the water

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a thrusting forward movement

Synonyms:

hurl; hurtle; lunge; thrust

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "hurtle" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hurtle"):

dart (move with sudden speed)

riposte (make a return thrust)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Move with or as if with a rushing sound

Example:

The cars hurtled by

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "hurtle" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

Even grown dogs might hurtle him backward or sideways with the impact of their heavy bodies; and backward or sideways he would go, in the air or sliding on the ground, but always with his legs under him and his feet downward to the mother earth.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Yet when Alleyne had passed him, of a sudden, out of pure devilment, he screamed out a curse at him, and sent a jagged flint stone hurtling past his ear.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The ancients, the fathers of the Church, the moderns, the Scriptures, the Arabians, were each sent hurtling against the other, while the rain still dripped and the dark holly-leaves glistened with the moisture.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Amazed and dizzy, the defenders, clutching at the cracking parapets for support, saw great stones, burning beams of wood, and mangled bodies hurtling past them through the air.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In vain his knights stormed and raved against the thin line which barred their path: the sword of Aylward and the great axe of John gleamed in the forefront of the battle and huge jagged pieces of rock, hurled by the strong arms of the bowmen, crashed and hurtled amid their ranks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then the front ranks began to surge slowly forward, to trot, to canter, to gallop, and in an instant the whole vast array was hurtling onward, line after line, the air full of the thunder of their cries, the ground shaking with the beat of their hoofs, the valley choked with the rushing torrent of steel, topped by the waving plumes, the slanting spears and the fluttering banderoles.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)