hurtle

verb

1. (archaic, literary, poetic, transitive)To propel or throw (something) hard or violently; to fling, to hurl.

   “He hurtled the wad of paper angrily at the trash can and missed by a mile.”

   “Soone as thoſe glitterand armes he did eſpye, / That vvith their brightneſſe made that darknes light, / His harmefull club he gan to hurtle hye, / And threaten batteill to the Faery knight; […]”

   “Such a curse on my head, in a manifest dread, / From the hand of your Zeus has been hurtled along!”

   “Away, thou east wind, snarling like a scold! / […] / Now, like sheep-shearer, from some mountain fold, / Thou hurtlest air with twisting, fleecy flakes / Of martial snow, that like a tyrant bold, / His pleasure in his neighbour's vineyard takes, / Nor careth for the wreck that everywhere he makes.”

2. (archaic, literary, poetic, transitive)To cause (someone or something) to collide with or hit another person or thing; or (two people or things) to collide with or hit each other.

   “Only in solitude could that strong man give way to his emotions; and at first they rushed forth so confused and stormy, so hurtling one the other, that hours elapsed before he could serenely face the terrible crisis of his position.”

3. (archaic, figuratively, literary, poetic, transitive)To attack or criticize (someone) verbally or in writing.
4. (intransitive, literary, poetic)To move rapidly, violently, or without control, especially in a noisy manner.

   “The car hurtled down the hill at 90 miles per hour.”

   “Pieces of broken glass hurtled through the air.”

   “His gorgeous ryder from her loftie ſted / VVould haue caſt dovvne, and trodd in durty myre, / Had not the Gyaunt ſoone her ſuccoured; / VVho all enrag'd vvith ſmart and frantick yre, / Came hurtling in full fiers, and forſt the knight retyre.”

   “[O]ne Herbertus Biſhop of the ſea of Norvvich, hearing of the gangs of good fellovves, that hurtled and buſtled thither, as thicke as it had beene to the ſhrine of Saint Thomas a Becket, or our Ladie of VValſingham, builded a certaine Chappell there for the ſeruice of God, and ſalutation of ſoules.”

   “No sooner were the Gorgons broad awake, than they hurtled upward into the air, brandishing their brass talons, gnashing their horrible tusks, and flapping their huge wings so wildly, that some of the golden feathers were shaken out, and floated down upon the snow.”

5. (archaic, intransitive, literary, poetic)Of a person or thing: to collide with or hit another person or thing, especially with force or violence; also, of two people or things: to collide together; to clash.

   “Yet could not all that force and furie ſhake / The valiant champions, nor their perſons vvound, / Together hurtled both their ſteedes, and brake / Each others necke, the riders lay on ground: / But they (great maſters of vvars dreadfull art) / Pluckt forth their ſvvords and ſoone from earth vp ſtart.”

6. (archaic, intransitive, literary, poetic)To make a sound of things clashing or colliding together; to clatter, to rattle; hence, to move with such a sound.

   “The noiſe of Battell hurtled in the Ayre: / Horſſes do neigh, and dying men did grone, / And Ghoſts did ſhrieke and ſqueale about the ſtreets.”

   “Now the Storm begins to lovver, / (Haſte, the loom of Hell prepare,) / Iron-ſleet of arrovvy ſhovver / Hurtles in the darken'd air.”

   “[T]he infantry / Deliberately with slow and steady step / Advanced; the bow-strings twang'd, and arrows hiss'd, / And javelins hurtled by.”

   “The greater number abandon their untenable position of hardihood, and seek a shelter when the terrible storm hurtleth in the heavens, and they see its dismal preparation.”

   “[D]ownward rifting / Mountain rocks to valley swards, / There to meet the earthquake sound / Hurtling 'neath the hollow ground!— […]”

7. (archaic, figuratively, intransitive, literary, poetic)Of two people, etc.: to meet in a shocking or violent encounter; to clash; to jostle.

noun

1. (countable, literary, poetic)An act of colliding with or hitting; a collision.

   “I flung closer to his breast, / As sword that, after battle, flings to sheathe; / And, in that hurtle of united souls, / The mystic motions which in common moods / Are shut beyond our sense, broke in on us, […]”

2. (also, countable, figuratively, literary, poetic)A rapid or uncontrolled movement; a dash, a rush.

   “[T]he war woke me up, I began to move left, and recent events have accelerated that move until it is now a hurtle.”

   “Jamba has removed from [Christopher] Marlowe's Doctor Faustus all but the barest of essentials – even half its title, leaving us with an 80-minute hurtle through Faustus's four and twenty borrowed years on earth.”

3. (countable, literary, poetic)A sound of clashing or colliding; a clattering, a rattling.

   “There came a hurtle of wings, a flash of bright feathers, and a great pigeon with slate-grey plumage and a neck bright as an opal, lit on a swaying finial.”

4. (figuratively, literary, poetic, uncountable)(Violent) disagreement; conflict.
5. (literary, obsolete, poetic, rare)Synonym of hurtleberry or whortleberry (“any of several shrubs belonging to the genus Vaccinium; a berry of one of these shrubs”).

   “Vaccinia nigra, the blacke VVhortle, or Hurtle, is a baſe and lovve tree, or vvoodie plant, bringing foorth many branches of a cubite high, ſet full of ſmall leaues, of a darke greene colour, […]”

6. (alt-of, literary, misspelling, poetic)Misspelling of hurdle.