hurry
Americanverb (used without object)
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hurries,
present (3rd person singular)
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hurried,
past participle, past
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hurrying
present participle
verb (used with object)
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hurries,
present (3rd person singular)
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hurried,
past participle, past
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hurrying
present participle
noun
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hurries
plural
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a state of urgency or eagerness.
to be in a hurry to meet a train.
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hurried movement or action; haste.
- Antonyms:
- deliberation
verb
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to hasten (to do something); rush
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to speed up the completion, progress, etc, of
noun
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haste
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urgency or eagerness
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informal
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easily
you won't beat him in a hurry
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willingly
we won't go there again in a hurry
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Synonym Usage
See rush 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hurrysimple
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hurriessimple
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have hurriedperfect
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has hurriedperfect
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am hurryingprogressive
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are hurryingprogressive
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is hurryingprogressive
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have been hurryingperfect progressive
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has been hurryingperfect progressive
Past
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hurriedsimple
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had hurriedperfect
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was hurryingprogressive
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were hurryingprogressive
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had been hurryingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hurry
First recorded in 1580–90; expressive word of uncertain origin, compare Middle English horyed (attested once) “rushed, impelled,” Middle High German hurren “to move quickly”
Explanation
To hurry is to rush, or to move quickly. If you're late for a movie and you don't want to miss the beginning, you'll have to hurry into the theater, not stopping to buy popcorn. When you're out for a walk and the sun begins to set, you might hurry home before it gets dark — in other words, move rapidly, or in haste. You can also hurry someone else, encouraging them to speed up. Your math teacher may criticize your sloppy work by commenting, "Looks like you were in a hurry." Hurry is one of many words that were invented by William Shakespeare, who used it frequently.
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:
Around the station, people who are still waiting for trains hurry to a pedestrian underpass that doubles as a shelter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
“He takes on challenges, but it’s not a, ‘Let me hurry up and get to this challenge, let me rush through this.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
Prof Rachel Isba who runs the clinic told the BBC some of the children she has seen had started wetting the bed or having to go to the toilet more often and in a hurry.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
The key is exploiting job-seeker anxiety, he noted: “They want somebody who is in a hurry to find a job.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 5, 2026
In no hurry to be home, I walked slowly and chattered about San Francisco—until my eye landed on a two-story house.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Elliot needs to suffer one more turn of the screw before the movie hurries toward a Hollywood ending that it doesn’t believe in at all.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
She prepares dinner, then hurries to an Amazon warehouse for a 6 1/2-hour shift sorting, scanning and hefting bulky items.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 10, 2026
Rosa hurries to her aunt's house, hoping to catch the last of the daylight.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2025
Each hurries forth into the night, headed somewhere we can’t possibly know in a world full of uncertainty.
From Salon ● Jan. 25, 2025
She drops her backpack with a thud at the foot of the stairs and hurries into the kitchen.
From "Amina's Voice" by Hena Khan
Mr. Jenkins sees serious risks but warns against confused, hurried responses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
People hurried to identify victims before they decomposed, in an era before refrigeration.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Now it means not being hurried, spending time with my family, control over my schedule, and intellectual independence.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026
Some tourists waited under a pine tree while others hurried up the Via dei Fori Imperiali, wearing hats or carrying umbrellas to escape the infernal sun.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Wait she did, for Myrt was not a cow to be hurried and neither was Mabel.
From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney
In fact, such a thing had been in the works since the 1950s, but instead of hurrying to get them assembly-line ready as L.A. was sickening with smog, Detroit just made bigger, filthier cars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026
From its opening, in 1999, the narrative briefly advances to 2002 and Siri’s glimpse of a young man hurrying away from a homeless encampment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
The first thing he noticed was that she failed to follow the scrubbing protocol, hurrying over her fingers and nails, finishing in a minute when everyone else took at least three.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2025
We’re most vulnerable when we’re hurrying to check things off the to-do list and get a good deal, especially one too good to be true.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2024
Once out of that fearful place they dropped to the ground and, hurrying to the ship, in no time launched it and were aboard.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
