Idioms

hurly burly

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hurly-burly

A wild and chaotic situation. Boy, it was a real hurly burly in there once the kids started tearing into their Christmas presents. This place always turns into a hurly-burly whenever they host one of their famous clearance sales. I don't know what hurly-burly I just walked into in the conference room, but everyone is just shouting at each other.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

hurly burly

A noisy confusion. To hurl is to throw, and “hurly burly” is based on the image of a mob throwing things around chaotically. The phrase appears in the opening scene of Shakespeare's Macbeth when the witches chant, “When shall we three meet again / In thunder, lightning, or in rain? / When the hurlyburly's done, / When the battle's lost and won.”
See also: burly, hurly
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price Copyright © 2011 by Steven D. Price
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References in periodicals archive
From those who protested at the School of the Americas, naive and vulnerable and incomprehensible to the world as that birth at Bethlehem, to the real time of a parish community finding its way through difficulty in Cincinnati, to the words from lives in today's Bethlehem, to the poetic utterances of those who surface new truths in an old world--the blessed hurly burly. A holy and happy Christmas to you all!
"The giant Hurly Burly sculpture went down really well at last year's parade so we'll be bringing him back for a second year, along with his sister, the Beast.
Lady in red: Kylie Minogue arrives at the Hurly Burly Show.Inset: Boy George.
Ray D'Arcy is used to the hurly burly of hosting the Rose Of Tralee
We live in a busy world in which it is all too easy to be so wrapped up in the hurly burly of life, that we have no time to hear the voice of God and to get to know Him and what His message is for today's world.
Drive Away was full of stomping beats and onstage hurly burly, while All I Ever Wanted touched the heart as well as the head.
He writes of encountering "masses of human warmth, good humour and friendliness" behind bars, and contrasts this to the "hurly burly" of his last months of freedom.
After spending more than two months on the sidelines it may be asking a lot to ask Darron to step straight back into the hurly burly of the Premier League against Norwich on Saturday.
A very much living and breathing hybrid of good old rock 'n' roll and punk with the kind of hurly burly you'd expect if AC/DC had somehow been transported back in time to the 1950s.
He said plans for a new high speed rail line between London and Birmingham should not be threatened by the "hurly burly" of party politics.
And he hopes he can survive the hurly burly of the 250cc clash without another painful spill.
Tony Blair has found the perfect partner to escape with from the hurly burly of the Commons chamber...
Denis Stracqualursi and Victor Anichebe are not as easy to defend, but it could still be argued that El SAY IT AINT JO: Josemi was a shock pick in 2004 Traca's energy and industry would be more useful in the hurly burly of a derby than poise and polish, while Anichebe was influential in last season's Anfield derby and has scored three times away from home already this season.
EVAN Williams believes the "hurly burly" of the Supreme Novices' Hurdle will suit his contender Deep Purple down to the ground.
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