hurl

American  

[hurl] / hɜrl /

verb (used with object)

• hurls,
  present (3rd person singular)
• hurled,
  past participle,  past
• hurling
  present participle

1. to throw or fling with great force or vigor.

   Synonyms:

   pitch, cast

2. to throw or cast down.

3. to utter with vehemence.

   to hurl insults at the umpire.

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verb (used without object)

• hurls,
  present (3rd person singular)
• hurled,
  past participle,  past
• hurling
  present participle

1. to throw a missile.

2. Baseball. to pitch a ball.

noun

1. a forcible or violent throw; fling.

hurl British  

/ hɜːl /

verb

1. (tr) to throw or propel with great force

2. (tr) to utter with force; yell

   to hurl insults

3. to transport or be transported in a driven vehicle

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noun

1. the act or an instance of hurling

2. a ride in a driven vehicle

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hurler
  noun
• outhurl
  verb (used with object)
• unhurled
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• hurling
  present
• hurled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• hurl
  simple
• hurls
  simple
• have hurled
  perfect
• has hurled
  perfect
• am hurling
  progressive
• are hurling
  progressive
• is hurling
  progressive
• have been hurling
  perfect progressive
• has been hurling
  perfect progressive

Past

• hurled
  simple
• had hurled
  perfect
• was hurling
  progressive
• were hurling
  progressive
• had been hurling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will hurl
  simple
• will have hurled
  perfect
• will be hurling
  progressive
• will have been hurling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of hurl

1175–1225; Middle English hurlen, equivalent to hur- (perhaps akin to hurry ) + -len -le; akin to Low German hurreln to toss, Frisian hurreln to roar (said of the wind), dialectal German hurlen to roll, rumble (said of thunder)

Explanation

When you hurl something, you throw it hard. You might hurl your shoe at a horrible bug if it suddenly scuttled across the floor. If you hurl a rock at a glass window, it will probably break, and if you hurl your trash in the direction of a garbage can, it may or may not land inside. The verb hurl implies some force behind your throw. The earliest English version was hurlen, which in the thirteenth century meant "run against each other or collide." It probably comes from the Germanic root hurr, which is also the root of hurry, and means "rapid motion."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hurl hurls hurled hurling

To prove her historic hurl was no fluke, she came back with a 192-6 effort on her sixth and last throw.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2026

The mob was there to accost and hurl insults at 58-year-old Kiai Ashari, the caretaker of the Ndholo Kusumo Islamic boarding school, as he was escorted away by police.

From BBC ● May 13, 2026

“He would hurl himself straight as an arrow right into the great roaring grey wall of an oncoming breaker and go clean through it as if it had neither weight nor momentum.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026

Moments later his epic 54-yard hurl to Marvin Mims Jr paid off spectacularly, caught deep downfield.

From Barron's ● Jan. 25, 2026

I don’t think, I just jump; I hurl my body on top of the dog, wrapping my arms around its thick neck.

From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth

The reason anyone who hurls themselves off a mountain for a living might perform such a procedure is a matter of aerodynamics.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026

But Curtis hurls herself into this schtick with gusto — say, demanding a ring light and lip plumper for her passport photo — and gets you laughing anyway.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2025

These intimacy issues are compressed as tightly as a packed snowball, and I wanted to address them before that icy sphere hurls my way, potentially hitting me smack in the face.

From Salon ● Jan. 4, 2025

According to Bhamla, if a pitcher hurls a baseball at 100 miles per hour, their hand must also move at that speed during the throwing motion.

From Scientific American ● Feb. 28, 2023

The wind makes her eyes water and buries their shoes in sand, hurls knots of dead grass from the curved ridges of one dune to another.

From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

A little: Those who haven’t read the first 4 will open “The End of the Arab of the Future” and find themselves hurled directly into an unfolding family emergency: Vol.

From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026

Like a pinball hurled into the the modern tech bubble, Duncan has spent the season trying to stay in the game without getting stuck or free-falling into oblivion too quickly.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026

He found broken trees littering the mountainside and hurled into the water, and vast swathes of scarred rock stripped of soil and vegetation.

From BBC ● May 6, 2026

But as he hurled his partner high above the ice, he was thrown off balance by grammar and umlauts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026

I wondered as the rest of us hurled around the last bend in the path and saw the West Gate.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

Since then, restaurant chains have been hurling discounts and deals at consumers to win them back.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026

A video widely circulated online showed a number of people, including one wielding a hurling stick, confronting the apparent attacker until the police arrived.

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026

William Glasdale, an English captain killed at Orléans, is best known for hurling abuse at Joan from his strongpoint, Les Tourelles.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026

President Trump is known for hurling scathing insults at world leaders.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026

Within two hours the winds picked up, quickly blowing into hurricane force, crashing waves against the rocks and hurling spray over the men in the boats, where it froze into slush.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong

Related Words

• fire
• fling
• heave
• lob
• sling