hurrying

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of hurry.

   Hurrying through the crowded station, he dropped his ticket.

   There is no point in hurrying when the train is already delayed.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here, participle and gerund, and it inherits both halves of the verb. It is intransitive in hurrying home and transitive in hurrying the children along, often with up (hurrying up the work). Before a noun it becomes descriptive, as in Margery Allingham's "hurrying business people" in The China Governess (1963). Miners had their own use, where hurrying meant conveying coal from the working to the tramway.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of rushing; quick, hasty motion or haste in getting something done.

   The morning was full of hurrying as everyone tried to reach the platform on time.

   Her endless hurrying betrayed how anxious she was about the deadline.

   Similarhaste, rushing, bustle, scurrying, hustle

   Oppositedawdling, lingering

   Note

   Unlike the gerund, this noun can be counted and made plural. Isaac Ambrose's Looking Unto Jesus (1832) asks the reader to "consider the hurryings of Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate." The company it keeps tells the two apart. An article, a plural ending or an of-phrase marks this noun, while the verb's -ing form takes a direct object instead, as in hurrying the work.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2