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.
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.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025
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 • Oct. 2, 2025
In a normal election year, races for secretary of state are sleepy affairs, and their campaigns struggle for media coverage amid the hurly-burly of more prominent Senate, governor and House contests.
From New York Times • Sep. 22, 2022
The petite 20-year-old has carved out a small patch of influence in the male-dominated hurly-burly of Kenyan politics, in the informal settlement of Kibra in the capital, Nairobi, where she lives.
From BBC • Jun. 24, 2022
Standing on Beacon Hill, so far removed from the hurly-burly of the wharves, shops, markets of town, Johnny hesitated.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
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.
