hurdle
see also: Hurdle
Pronunciation
  • (RP) enPR: hûr'dəl, IPA: /ˈhɜːdəl/
  • (America) enPR: hûr'dəl, IPA: /ˈhɝdəl/
Noun

hurdle (plural hurdles)

  1. An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race.
    He ran in the 100 metres hurdles.
  2. A perceived obstacle.
  3. A movable frame of wattled twigs, osiers, or withes and stakes, or sometimes of iron, used for enclosing land, for folding sheep and cattle, for gates, etc.; also, in fortification, used as revetments, and for other purposes.
  4. (UK, obsolete) A sled or crate on which criminals were formerly drawn to the place of execution.
    • 1550, Francis Bacon, A Preparation Toward the Union of Laws, in The Works of Francis Bacon, edited by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, London: Longman, Green & Co., Vol. VII, p. 735,
      In treason, the corporal punishment is by drawing on hurdle from the place of the prison to the place of execution, and by hanging and being cut down alive, bowelling, and quartering: and in women by burning.
    • 1855, Matthew Arnold, Balder Dead, Part II, in The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840-1867, Oxford University Press, 1909, pp. 250-51,
      Behind flock'd wrangling up a piteous crew, / Greeted of none, disfeatur'd and forlorn— / Cowards, who were in sloughs interr'd alive: / And round them still the wattled hurdles hung / Wherewith they stamp'd them down, and trod them deep, / To hide their shameful memory from men.
  5. (T-flapping) Misspelling of hurtle
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations
  • French: claie
  • Russian: плете́нь
Verb

hurdle (hurdles, present participle hurdling; past and past participle hurdled)

  1. To jump over something while running.
    He hurdled the bench in his rush to get away.
  2. To compete in the track and field events of hurdles (e.g. high hurdles).
  3. To overcome an obstacle.
  4. To hedge, cover, make, or enclose with hurdles.
Translations Noun

hurdle (plural hurdles)

  1. (T-flapping) Misspelling of hurtle
Verb

hurdle (hurdles, present participle hurdling; past and past participle hurdled)

  1. (T-flapping) Misspelling of hurtle

Hurdle
Proper noun
  1. Surname



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