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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

hurry.

A rushed action.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈhʌ.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈhʌ.ɹi/US/ˈhɝ.i//ˈhʊ.ɹi/Northern-England
  1. A rushed action.

    countable · uncountable
    Why are you in such a big hurry?
  2. An urgency.

    countable · uncountable
    There is no hurry on that paperwork.
  3. An incidence of a defensive pressure that forces the quarterback to throw the ball earlier than intended or rush their decision, often leading to an incomplete pass or failed play.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A tremolando passage for violins, etc., accompanying an exciting situation.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English horien (“to rush, impel”), probably a variation of 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- (“to run”) (compare Latin currō (“to run”), Tocharian A kursär/Tocharian B kwarsär (“league; course”)). Related to hurr, horse, rush. Alternative etymology derives hurry as a variant of harry.

verb/ˈhʌ.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈhʌ.ɹi/US/ˈhɝ.i//ˈhʊ.ɹi/Northern-England
  1. To do things quickly.

    intransitive
    He's hurrying because he's late.
  2. Often with up, to speed up the rate of doing something.

    intransitive
    If you don't hurry (up) you won't finish on time.
  3. To cause to be done quickly.

    transitive
  4. To hasten; to impel to greater speed; to urge on.

    transitive
  5. To impel to precipitate or thoughtless action; to urge to confused or irregular activity.

    transitive
  6. To put: to convey coal in the mine, e.g. from the working to the tramway.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English horien (“to rush, impel”), probably a variation of 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- (“to run”) (compare Latin currō (“to run”), Tocharian A kursär/Tocharian B kwarsär (“league; course”)). Related to hurr, horse, rush. Alternative etymology derives hurry as a variant of harry.

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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.