▪ I. hurry-scurry, adv., a., and n. colloq.
(ˈhʌrɪˈskʌrɪ)
Also hurry-skurry.
[f. hurry v. + scurry v.: the jingling combination has the effect of a reduplicative formation; cf. helter-skelter.]
A. adv. With the hurry and confusion of persons, etc., running in diverse directions; in disorderly haste, pell-mell.
| 1750 Gray Long Story 63 Each hole and cupboard they explore..Run hurry-skurry round the floor. 1798 Coleridge Poems, Mad Ox xiv, The victor ox scoured down the street, The mob fled hurry-scurry. 1833 Longfellow Outre-Mer Pr. Wks. 1886 I. 125 Away went horse and rider at full speed,—hurry-scurry,—up hill and down. 1883 E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 138 A whistling coal train drove these horsemen hurry-scurry out of its way. |
B. adj. Characterized by hurry and commotion.
| 1732 E. Forrest Hogarth's Tour 4 We made a hurry⁓scurry dinner at the Smack at the ten-gun battery. 1789 F. Burney Diary Dec., It must be a mighty hurry⁓skurry life! 1836 Disraeli Lett. Runnymede 154 That volatile effusion which is the hurry-skurry offspring of ignorance and guile. 1863 Bradford Advertiser 18 July 5/2 Then hurry-skurry retreat; men tumbling over one another for fear. |
C. n. Hurry and confusion; the hurrying and disorderly rushing of a number; a ‘rush’.
| 1754 Richardson Grandison (1781) VI. xlvii. 296 Why should not we women, after all, contrive to make hurry⁓skurries? 1797 F. Burney Let. to Burney 20 July, The close of the season is always hurry-scurry. 1800 A. Carlyle Autobiog. 134 While our dinner was preparing, an alarm was beat in the camp, which occasioned a great hurry-scurry in the courtyard. 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour lxvi. 371 All was now commotion and hurry-scurry inside and out. 1862 Shirley Nugæ Crit. xi. 488 This is the age of progress. No,..it is the age of hurry-skurry. We have all run ourselves out of breath. |
▪ II. ˈhurry-ˈscurry, v.
[f. prec.]
1. intr. To move or proceed with hurry-scurry; to run or rush in confused and undignified haste.
| 1771 Foote Maid of B. iii. Wks. 1799 II. 227 Out bolted the Squire, and hurry-scurried away. 1812 Combe Picturesque i. (Chandos) 6 She was among those busy wives, Who hurry-scurry through their lives. 1896 Daily News 4 Dec. 7/4 Having to hurry-scurry about the platform in search of a vacant seat. |
2. trans. (nonce-use.)
| 1896 Westm. Gaz. 20 Mar. 2/1 The paste is hurry-skurried into pie, pudding, or tart. |