hurdles
part of speech
noun (a hurdle, hurdles); verb (hurdle, hurdles, hurdled, hurdling)
meaning for a pupil
1) (sport) Hurdles are a race in which runners jump over a row of light frames: the 100 metres hurdles. tree →
2) A hurdle is one of those frames. tree →
3) A problem or difficulty you must get past: the last hurdle before the holidays. tree →
4) (old, farming) A movable fence panel of woven sticks, used to pen sheep. tree →
5) (verb) to jump over something while running. tree →
sense in the lessons
PE and sports day: hurdles races; Olympics. Everyday figurative sense: «we've cleared the first hurdle». History and farming: wattle hurdles for sheep pens, as in old country scenes. In The Wind in the Willows the countryside has hedges and hurdles.
examples
- She won the girls' hurdles on sports day. tree →
- He knocked over the last hurdle. tree →
- Learning to read was a big hurdle for him. tree →
- We cleared the first hurdle and got the money for the trip. tree →
- The farmer moved the hurdles to make a new sheep pen. tree →
- The horse jumped the hurdles easily. tree →
- Our class practised hurdles in PE. tree →
note
«Hurdles» (plural) can name the race and takes a singular verb: «Hurdles is my best event.» Do not confuse with «huddle» (to crowd together). Verb: to hurdle a fence.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «hurdles» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.