hurly-burly
Americannoun
plural
hurly-burliesadjective
noun
adjective
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.
As much as the hurly burly of the Coen brothers’ movies might seem distant from Shakespearean tragedy, their films are crowded with schemers seized by misguided ambitions — just usually more farcical ones.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 22, 2021
Hibs began to look accomplished amidst the hurly burly of the game.
From BBC • May 4, 2016
Bobby Moore had about him a serenity on the football field's hurly burly that never, in my slight experience, has been matched.
From The Guardian • Feb. 22, 2013
New justices must adjust to another sort of hurly burly, as Justice Kagan, who joined the court in 2010, learned at one point during Tuesday’s argument.
From New York Times • Apr. 2, 2012
This poore young Gentleman had no great reuenue, for that the patrimonie of his predecessors was wasted in charges for entertainement of Souldiers in the time of the hurly burly and debates aforesaid.
From The Palace of Pleasure Volume 3 by Painter, William
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.
