hurdle
/ˈhɝd(ə)l/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.41 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race.
Example Sentences
- "He ran in the 100 metres hurdles."
- "My last stop was an outdoor speech to a huge crowd of Ukrainians whom I urged to stay on the course of freedom and economic reform. Kiev was beautiful in the late spring sunshine, and I hoped its people could keep up the high spirits I had observed in the crowd. They still had many hurdles to clear."
- "The practice of folding sheep was general, and the purchase of hurdles was a regular charge in the shepherd's account."
- "In treason, the corporal punishment is by drawing on hurdle from the place of the prison to the place of execution, and by hanging and being cut down alive, bowelling, and quartering: and in women by burning."
- "Such a crew! Ah! many a wretch has rid on hurdles who has done less mischief than these utterers of forged Tales, coiners of Scandal, and clippers of Reputation."
- "Hurdles, with four, five, six wretches convicted of counterfeiting or mutilating the money of the realm, were dragged month after month up Holborn Hill. On one morning seven men were hanged and a woman burned for clipping"
Etymology
] From Middle English hurdel, hirdel, herdel, hyrdel, from Old English hyrdel (“frame of intertwined twigs used as a temporary barrier”), diminutive of *hyrd, from Proto-Germanic *hurdiz, from Pre-Germanic *kr̥h₂tis, from Proto-Indo-European *kreh₂-. Cognate with Dutch horde, German Hürde.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: hurdel, hyrdel, *hurdiz, *kreh₂-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhɝd(ə)l/
- British English: /ˈhɜːdl̩/
Usage
- British usage