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

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Etymology

Origin of hurtle

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

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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

Ballistic missiles fly very high after launch, often out of the earth’s atmosphere, and hurtle back down at speeds of miles per second, making them difficult to fend off.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

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

The accident, which saw the picture-postcard 19th-century Gloria tramway hurtle into a building after careering off the rails, shocked the Portuguese capital, laying bare fears over the safety of the popular yet ageing tourist attraction.

From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2025

The candidates, once leading characters in the American story, hurtle back into supporting roles or relative obscurity.

From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2024

I look up to see the akrafena break out of the thicket and hurtle toward us.

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

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

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

“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

One of the shards of her body hurtles straight toward me, whistling with speed and shimmering with power.

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

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

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

Firetrucks hurtled by, forgoing those burning homes believed to be lost causes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2026

Celaena hurtled into the room, and saw only her bed before everything went dark.

From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

Then the rain stopped and we were hurtling into drought.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 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

A 13-year-old boy on an e-bike in Garden Grove died earlier this week after veering into the center median and hurtling onto the roadway.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2026

A billionaire buying a fashion magazine is akin to a plane hurtling toward the ground, only for a passenger to confidently take the controls, despite having zero flying experience.

From Salon ● May 6, 2026

He was no more confident than Constance that the end wasn’t hurtling toward them.

From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart

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