flurry
Americannoun
-
a light, brief shower of snow.
-
sudden commotion, excitement, or confusion; nervous hurry.
There was a flurry of activity before the guests arrived.
-
Stock Exchange.
-
a brief rise or fall in prices.
-
a brief, unusually heavy period of trading.
-
-
a sudden gust of wind.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
-
(of snow) to fall or be blown in a flurry.
-
to move in an excited or agitated manner.
noun
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a sudden commotion or burst of activity
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a light gust of wind or rain or fall of snow
-
stock exchange a sudden brief increase in trading or fluctuation in stock prices
-
the death spasms of a harpooned whale
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
flurrysimple
-
flurriessimple
-
have flurriedperfect
-
has flurriedperfect
-
am flurryingprogressive
-
are flurryingprogressive
-
is flurryingprogressive
-
have been flurryingperfect progressive
-
has been flurryingperfect progressive
Past
-
flurriedsimple
-
had flurriedperfect
-
was flurryingprogressive
-
were flurryingprogressive
-
had been flurryingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of flurry
Explanation
A light blowing swirl of snow that's just barely falling is a flurry. There might be a brief flurry or two at the beginning of the winter, with no real heavy snow until January. You can describe a snow flurry, or a similarly swirling flurry of leaves or papers. When people act this way, rushing and fussing around, that's another kind of flurry. There might, for example, be a flurry of activity in the morning at your house as everyone hurries to get ready for the day. This sense of flurry is actually about a hundred years older than the snow meaning, which was first used in mid-1800's American English.
Vocabulary lists containing flurry
Raining Cats and Dogs
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myPerspectives 10.3
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Hands
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Then the administration filed a flurry of subpoenas against them.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
The flurry of movement and construction around the site initially gave her hope.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
The Briton regrouped in the second round to land a flurry of hard right hands, sending Prenga crashing to the canvas and getting the win he came to Jeddah for.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Each day, there was a little flurry of figuring out who had come to watch.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
My feet don’t move, but Ethan’s nudge at my elbow overrides a flurry of thoughts to flee.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
Still, officials from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey made flurries of calls, including to Iran’s Araghchi and Trump’s envoy Witkoff to salvage peace efforts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
In the flurries of media interviews that come with life as an astronaut, he acknowledged the deep responsibility he felt toward the next generations of Black astronauts he hoped to inspire.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2026
In Tokyo, the flowers reached full bloom during the weekend, entering a brief period of stunning beauty, before the petals will fall like flurries of snow.
From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026
Parts of west Florida reported snow flurries over the weekend, according to the weather services.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026
Outside the window, she could see snowy mountains closer than they were before, although the flurries had stopped.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
The brushstrokes are a whirlwind of eloquent smudges and slashes, suggesting that the picture was completed in a few flurried minutes.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2023
But instead of gangsters and cocaine, it finds a flurried momentum in one ordinary woman’s everyday obligations, which threaten to break her when a nationwide strike throws her tenuous act off balance.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2023
Boston flurried at the end of the half to take a 68-56 lead into halftime.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 8, 2022
Sircar called out as doctors and nurses flurried around a 48-year-old man who had been rushed in and intubated in the emergency room.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2021
Reed stood at the prow while they flurried around him, with Jigo and the chief mate at his side.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
As Antoshak recalls, it was flurrying — the first snow of the season.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 7, 2022
Long lines of blue-clad fans stood queued up for beers despite an overcast sky and flakes of snow flurrying to the ground.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 20, 2018
It is a gem of a work, opening with a fantasia of flurrying 16th notes that echo snowfall.
From New York Times ● Sep. 15, 2017
The wind scattered the flurrying snow above the grave.
From Time Magazine Archive
What if you’re both wrong? she said, her hands flurrying.
From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
