hurtle
Americanverb (used without object)
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to rush violently; move with great speed.
The car hurtled down the highway.
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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.
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Archaic. to strike together or against something; collide.
verb (used with object)
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to drive violently; fling; dash.
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Archaic. to dash against; collide with.
noun
verb
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to project or be projected very quickly, noisily, or violently
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rare (intr) to collide or crash
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hurtlesimple
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hurtlessimple
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have hurtledperfect
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has hurtledperfect
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am hurtlingprogressive
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are hurtlingprogressive
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is hurtlingprogressive
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have been hurtlingperfect progressive
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has been hurtlingperfect progressive
Past
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hurtledsimple
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had hurtledperfect
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was hurtlingprogressive
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were hurtlingprogressive
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had been hurtlingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing hurtle
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Hatchet
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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:
Instead, they will hurtle through the hallways of high schools in Florida and Georgia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 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
The candidates, once leading characters in the American story, hurtle back into supporting roles or relative obscurity.
From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2024
As we hurtle towards Mariah Carey's most lucrative holiday, families all over the UK will be pressing play on Christmas films such as Love Actually to get themselves into the festive spirit.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2024
With rising fear, Nailer realized that it was one thing to speculate idly about jumping a train, another to watch freight cars hurtle past.
From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi
For public companies, so-called “related-party transactions” are publicly disclosed in regulatory filings, but Altman’s personal investments remain opaque as OpenAI hurtles towards a public listing later this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
A few months and one tutorial from Anthropic’s Claude AI model later, Marks’ latest investment memo has the header “AI hurtles ahead.”
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 27, 2026
“The Secret Agent” isn’t tightly coiled so much as it gradually unfolds, its full meaning unclear until the filmmaker eventually hurtles forward nearly 50 years, snapping the final puzzle piece into place.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025
As the number of registered .ai domains hurtles toward the million mark, Anguillians will hope this money is managed safely and invested in their future.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2025
Suddenly there is a crash in the drawing-room, and an iron stove hurtles through the wall past us and on, a yard from us out through the wall behind.
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
On the boulevard itself, parking spots were filling up as drivers hurtled down the busy roadway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 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
Blue Origin's employees and crowds gathered near Cape Canaveral cheered as the 98 meters-high rocket hurtled into orbit.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2025
The storm that hurtled through Houston late Thursday surprised a city long accustomed to bouts of serious weather.
From New York Times ● May 17, 2024
Once the needle settled, she scratched away on her clipboard, while Fig hurtled off the scale, dashing back to the safety of his carrier.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Is a life spent constantly looking backward instead of hurtling forward even worth grieving?
From Salon ● May 30, 2026
The shot of the car hurtling off the cliff is one of cinema’s most enduring images, illustrating unbreakable friendship, victory and freedom.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
The team work quickly before Russian forces can detect them and send ballistic missiles hurtling towards us.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026
While hurtling through deep space and zipping around the Moon, the Artemis astronauts took thousands of photographs, amassing a stunning portfolio of images.
From Barron's ● Apr. 11, 2026
Harry felt as though he too were hurtling through space; it had not happened...It could not have happened...
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
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.
