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:
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
Yet by 2021’s “Solar Power,” Lorde was singing about abandoning the hurly-burly of pop stardom in the always-on social-media era.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2025
One of a potted orchid on a windowsill overlooking a blurry view of the Hudson poignantly suggests a retreat from the hurly-burly of life.
From New York Times ● Nov. 25, 2022
The petite 20-year-old has carved out a small patch of influence in the male-dominated hurly-burly of Kenyan politics, in the informal settlement of Kibra in the capital, Nairobi, where she lives.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2022
I gazed upon this urban hurly-burly like someone observing a city from a hot-air balloon.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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
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
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.
