hurry

Formshurries, hurrying, hurried

Pluralhurries (some meanings)

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To act or move with speed, especially because time is short.

   If we hurry, we can still catch the last ferry.

   He hurried along the platform, afraid of being late.

   Similarrush, hasten, race, dash, hustle

   Oppositedawdle, linger, dally, loiter

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Rushed activity; the doing of things at speed and often without care.

   In his hurry to leave, he knocked over the lamp.

   The morning was all hurry and noise as everyone got ready.

   Similarhaste, rush, bustle, hustle

   Note

   The core noun, and the place where the word's story begins. It comes from Middle English horien, "to rush, impel", probably a variant of hurren, "to vibrate rapidly, buzz". That word goes back to a root meaning "to run", the same root behind Latin currō. In everyday English the noun lives mostly in the phrase in a hurry, which intensifies easily: in such a hurry, in a big hurry.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A pressing need for speed; urgency about getting something done.

   There's no great hurry to reply before next week.

   She sensed the hurry in his voice and grabbed her coat.

   Similarrush, urgency, haste

   Note

   Here the hurry belongs to the situation rather than the person: it is the need for speed, not the speed itself. Its natural home is the negative, as in there is no hurry or no hurry on that paperwork, a polite way to lift pressure. Compare the noun for rushed action: there someone is in a hurry, while here a task simply has one, or doesn't.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To make a task or action be completed more quickly.

   We shouldn't hurry the decision just to please them.

   The editor hurried the article into print before the weekend.

   Similarrush, hasten, expedite, accelerate, speed

   Oppositedelay, slow

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To increase one's pace; to go or act faster, often expressed as 'hurry up'.

   Hurry up or we'll miss the opening act.

   If everyone hurries up, we can leave on time.

   Similarspeed

   Oppositeslow

   Note

   The phrasal form is the everyday one: hurry up, above all as a command. The up is optional and adds insistence rather than direction. Don't confuse it with the up that follows the plain "move quickly" verb, as in Margery Allingham's hurried up the staircase. There up is a preposition with an object, and the movement really is upward.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To urge someone or something on to greater speed; to hasten.

   Don't hurry the horses up the steep slope.

   She hurried the guests along so the show could begin.

   Similarurge, hustle, rush, push, drive

   Note

   Here someone else supplies the speed: you hurry a person or thing, usually toward somewhere. The verb nearly always carries a direction. Shakespeare's The Tempest has They hurried him aboard a bark, and Robert South writes of a stream that hurries him down violently. With that phrase the force often comes close to bundling someone off.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To push someone into hasty, ill-considered action; to urge into confused activity.

   They tried to hurry him into a rash agreement.

   Panic hurried the crowd into a disorderly rush for the doors.

   Similarrush, push, pressure, railroad, stampede

   Note

   The urging that robs judgment: what does the hurrying here is often a feeling rather than a person. In Shakespeare's King John, wild amazement hurries the doubtful friends up and down, which scatters them instead of pushing them forward. In modern use the usual frame is hurry someone into something, such as a rash agreement or a choice made too fast.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A defensive player's act of forcing the quarterback to throw or move sooner than intended, leading to a failed offensive play.

   The linebacker recorded a hurry that disrupted the throw.

   Constant pressure from the line resulted in another hurry.

   Note

   A statistic of defensive pressure, counted alongside sacks. Ken Belson and Ben Shpigel's 2020 draft analysis praises a lineman for allowing only one sack and three-and-a-half quarterback hurries. The fuller phrase, quarterback hurry, is common in such tallies. A hurry is the lesser count: the passer is rushed into acting early rather than brought down.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A rapid tremolando passage, typically for violins, played to accompany an exciting or dramatic situation on stage.

   The composer wrote a hurry to underscore the chase scene.

   As the storm broke on stage, the pit struck up a hurry.

   Note

   Music named for the feeling it creates: the trembling string figure, or tremolando, laid under an exciting moment. The name suits the word's history, since hurry probably grew from Middle English hurren, "to vibrate rapidly, buzz", and a tremolando makes exactly that sound. It works as a countable term of the trade: a composer writes a hurry, and the players strike one up.

10. 10
    verbtransitive

    In coal mining, to convey coal from the working face to the tramway or haulage road.

    Boys were employed to hurry coal through the low passages.

    She hurried the loaded corves toward the shaft all morning.

    Similarhaul, convey

    Note

    A pit word for hauling rather than haste: in the coal mines, to hurry was to put, moving coal from the working toward the tramway. The Condition and Treatment of the Children Employed in the Mines (1842) records seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Day saying she "trapped for two years" and "hurried ever since." It also works without an object, naming a job: she hurried for her father.

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