hurtle

American  

[hur-tl] / ˈhɜr tl /

verb (used without object)

• hurtles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• hurtled,
  past participle,  past
• hurtling
  present participle

1. to rush violently; move with great speed.

   The car hurtled down the highway.

   Synonyms:

   shoot, rush, race, fly, speed

2. to move or go noisily or resoundingly, as with violent or rapid motion.

   The sound was deafening, as tons of snow hurtled down the mountain.

3. Archaic. to strike together or against something; collide.

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verb (used with object)

• hurtles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• hurtled,
  past participle,  past
• hurtling
  present participle

1. to drive violently; fling; dash.

2. Archaic. to dash against; collide with.

noun

1. Archaic. clash; collision; shock; clatter.

hurtle British  

/ ˈhɜːtəl /

verb

1. to project or be projected very quickly, noisily, or violently

2. rare (intr) to collide or crash

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• hurtling
  present
• hurtled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• hurtle
  simple
• hurtles
  simple
• have hurtled
  perfect
• has hurtled
  perfect
• am hurtling
  progressive
• are hurtling
  progressive
• is hurtling
  progressive
• have been hurtling
  perfect progressive
• has been hurtling
  perfect progressive

Past

• hurtled
  simple
• had hurtled
  perfect
• was hurtling
  progressive
• were hurtling
  progressive
• had been hurtling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will hurtle
  simple
• will have hurtled
  perfect
• will be hurtling
  progressive
• will have been hurtling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of hurtle

1175–1225; Middle English hurtle, equivalent to hurt ( en ) ( see hurt) + -le -le

Explanation

If you forcefully throw or fling something, you hurtle it. In a food fight, you may hurtle chocolate pudding across the room, but be prepared for someone to launch peas at you in retaliation. Duck! The verb hurtle also means to move rapidly, often with a rushing sound, and sometimes with seeming lack of control. If you are driving on wet, slippery roads at night, try not to drive fast and skid out of control — if you do, your car may seem to hurtle through the darkness! By the way, even though we can't feel it, the earth hurtles through space at approximately 67,000 miles per hour as it orbits the sun.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hurtle hurtles hurtled hurtling

At the beginning, riders are taken up a slope while facing backward and, at the peak, their seats spin forward as they hurtle toward the ground headfirst.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026

His allies said he did have the numbers necessary but decided to put pressure on the prime minister to quit on his own terms rather than hurtle into a contest right now.

From BBC ● May 15, 2026

On Sunday, they might watch Vonn hurtle down an icy hill at 80 miles per hour.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026

The 2010 Olympic downhill champion made the difference particularly in the second half of the race, taking very direct turns to gain more speed than the others and hurtle towards the finish line.

From Barron's ● Jan. 10, 2026

Globular clusters plunge through the galactic plane and out the other side, where they slow, reverse and hurtle back again.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

While Hurricane Polo hurtles around the Pacific, there isn't a trace of the usual cyclones off Mexico's opposite coast, near Solis's native Yucatan.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

Hall could be heard exclaiming, as the unusual-looking raccoon hurtles across a pavement and up some nearby steps.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

As OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, hurtles toward a planned initial public offering this year, valued at around $850 billion, the question persists—how to determine whether decisions serve the company’s best interest or Altman’s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

A few months and one tutorial from Anthropic’s Claude AI model later, Marks’s latest investment memo has the header “AI hurtles ahead.”

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 27, 2026

Hours later, he wakes to see the silhouette of an airplane blot stars as it hurtles east.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

The plane then hurtled into a nearly minute-long nosedive, plummeting almost three miles.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

Sprinting robots hurtled themselves full-speed into a wall like Forrest Gump with a death wish.

From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026

And as the capsule hurtled back to Earth, it experienced temperatures half as hot as the surface of the Sun.

From BBC ● Apr. 11, 2026

Pilot Jakob Mandlbauer was stretchered off after the bob hurtled down the track for a good 30 seconds on its side.

From Barron's ● Feb. 21, 2026

Annabeth spun as a massive dark shape hurtled down at her—a snarling, monstrous blob with spindly barbed legs and glinting eyes.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

The stunts - from falling off paddleboards to hurtling down rollercoasters – were scaled back at this year's Liberal Democrat party conference.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Releasing a hurtling hunk of metal without knowing where it would go and what would happen is too likely to cause harm.

From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026

Surveillance footage from March 22 captured the moment the plane smashed into the rescue vehicle as it crossed its path, sending both hurtling down the runway.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

Tech scion David Ellison’s proposed merger has been hurtling toward the finish line after securing approvals from the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

I think that means Fly is happy to be hurtling through space with me, too.

From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga

Related Words

• collide
• lunge
• scoot