hurdle

Etymology 1

]] 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.

noun

1. An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race.
   He ran in the 100 metres hurdles.
2. (figurative) An obstacle, real or perceived, physical or abstract.
   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. 2005, Bill Clinton, My Life, volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →OCLC, page 588
3. A movable frame of wattled twigs, osiers, or withes and stakes, or sometimes of iron, used for enclosing land, for folding sheep and cattle, for gates, etc.; also, in fortification, used as revetments, and for other purposes.
   The practice of folding sheep was general, and the purchase of hurdles was a regular charge in the shepherd's account. 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 414
4. (UK, obsolete) A sled or crate on which criminals were formerly drawn to the place of execution.
   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. 1550, Francis Bacon, “A Preparation Toward the Union of Laws”, in James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, Douglas Denon Heath, editors, The Works of Francis Bacon, volume VII, London: Longman, Green & Co., page 735
   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. 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, II.i
   Behind flock'd wrangling up a piteous crew, / Greeted of none, disfeatur'd and forlorn— / Cowards, who were in sloughs interr'd alive: / And round them still the wattled hurdles hung / Wherewith they stamp'd them down, and trod them deep, / To hide their shameful memory from men. 1855, Matthew Arnold, Balder Dead, Part II, in The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840-1867, Oxford University Press, 1909, pp. 250-51, https://archive.org/details/cu31924013206499

verb

1. To jump over something while running.
   He hurdled the bench in his rush to get away.
2. To compete in the track and field events of hurdles (e.g. high hurdles).
3. To overcome an obstacle.
4. To hedge, cover, make, or enclose with hurdles.

Etymology 2

noun

1. (T-flapping) Misspelling of hurtle.

verb

1. (T-flapping) Misspelling of hurtle.