hurdle.
An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race.
Meaning & usage
An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race.
He ran in the 100 metres hurdles.
An obstacle, real or perceived, physical or abstract.
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.
A sled or crate on which criminals were drawn to the place of execution.
A piece that is jumped over by a hopper piece.
Where this word comes from
] From Middle English hurdel, hirdel, herdel, hyrdel, from Old English hyrdel (“frame of intertwined twigs used as a temporary barrier”), diminutive of *hyrd, from Proto-Germanic *hurdiz, from Pre-Germanic *kr̥h₂tis, from Proto-Indo-European *kreh₂-. Cognate with Dutch horde, German Hürde.
To jump over something while running.
He hurdled the bench in his rush to get away.
To compete in the track and field events of hurdles (e.g. high hurdles).
To overcome an obstacle.
To hedge, cover, make, or enclose with hurdles.
To jump over another piece without capturing it.
Where this word comes from
] From Middle English hurdel, hirdel, herdel, hyrdel, from Old English hyrdel (“frame of intertwined twigs used as a temporary barrier”), diminutive of *hyrd, from Proto-Germanic *hurdiz, from Pre-Germanic *kr̥h₂tis, from Proto-Indo-European *kreh₂-. Cognate with Dutch horde, German Hürde.
Misspelling of hurtle.
Misspelling of hurtle.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.