hurly-burly
Americannoun
-
hurly-burlies
plural
adjective
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hurly-burly
1520–30; alteration of hurling ( and ) burling, rhyming phrase based on hurling in its (now obsolete) sense of tumult, uproar
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:
I got a crash course on Angeleno aesthetics and the ins and outs of the rough and tumble San Fernando Valley hurly-burly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Perhaps this can be done in the midst of the hurly-burly of the professional world, but it’s not easy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
It is this connection between the well-being of people and the functioning of government that often gets lost or forgotten in the hurly-burly of debate over the locus and exercise of governing power.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 20, 2023
In a normal election year, races for secretary of state are sleepy affairs, and their campaigns struggle for media coverage amid the hurly-burly of more prominent Senate, governor and House contests.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2022
It is important for a freedom fighter to remain in touch with his own roots, and the hurly-burly of city life has a way of erasing the past.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
I hope the soldiers of Capua shall follow our faction, for Sylla, hearing of these hurly-burlies, is hasting homeward, very fortunate in his wars against Mithridates.
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 7 by Various
How many several hurly-burlies of fools! for I myself sometimes sit among those poetical gods.
From The Praise of Folly by John Wilson
King looks towards the Prince of Baireuth again, agreed on before those hurly-burlies now past; Queen looks far otherwards.
From History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 08 by Thomas Carlyle
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.
