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Glite Dictionary
hurley

hurley

1 8.3
A wooden stick with a flat end used to hit a ball in an Irish field game
  • noun
  • UK
: hurley
  • At the age of six, he set out from home to the royal palace with a dart, a hurley stick, and a ball.
  • hurley stick

Examples

  • In it were pictures of kitchen implements, body parts, a hurley stick, and sheep.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • You look more like one of the ones they make hurley sticks out of.

    Ondine (2010)

  • Matty had saved his childhood hurley stick for a boy.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • This lads... is a hurley, used in the Irish game of hurling... a cross between hockey and murder.

    Blitz (2011)

  • Outside waiting patiently was Ulfas, my old second-in-command on the hurley field.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • In hurling, players skillfully maneuver the ball with their hurley to score points.

  • He proudly displayed his new hurley before the championship match next week.

  • During the game, she swung her hurley and sent the ball flying down the field.

Surface Forms

hurley singular
hurleys plural

Morphology

hurley = hurl (semi-transparent) = hurl + y

The word is connected to 'hurl', but the specialized meaning 'a stick used in hurling' is not fully predictable from the base alone.

Etymology

The word hurley comes from the action word hurl, which means 'to throw' or 'to swing', and was used for the stick in the Irish game of hurling. So a hurley is literally the stick you use to 'hurl' the ball.