hurly-burly
Americannoun
plural
hurly-burliesadjective
noun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of hurly-burly
1520–30; alteration of hurling ( and ) burling, rhyming phrase based on hurling in its (now obsolete) sense of tumult, uproar
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“When we arrive in Baltimore, there will be plenty of hurly-burly on the street. You and I will have to go our separate ways from the depot to the hotel—we cannot be seen together again, or we might give our entire scheme away. But keep in mind, Nell, that I won’t be far behind you in case trouble should arise.”
From Literature
Perhaps this can be done in the midst of the hurly-burly of the professional world, but it’s not easy.
Mr. Howard observes that his preference for country living distinguished him in the book world, and he spent a lot of his adult life in small-town Connecticut, serenely removed from the urban hurly-burly.
Yet by 2021’s “Solar Power,” Lorde was singing about abandoning the hurly-burly of pop stardom in the always-on social-media era.
From Los Angeles Times
But mostly for my parents, who had worked so hard for so many years to create a refuge from the hurly-burly of the outside world.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
