hurkle

• hurple, hirple, hurtle

Borrowed from Scots hurkle.

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)kəl

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

hurkle (third-person singular simple present hurkles, present participle hurkling, simple past and past participle hurkled)

1. (dialectal, intransitive) To draw in the parts of the body, especially with pain or cold.
2. to cower
3. (dialectal, of the limbs) To contract, to pull in.

• “hurkle, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

hurkle

1. alternative form of hurtelen

Of unknown origin, perhaps cognate with hirple (“to limp”) or Dutch hurken (“to squat”), plus the suffix -le. Alternatively, possibly from Old Norse herpa (“to be contracted”) +‎ -le with the 'p' irregularly changing to 'k'.^[1]

• IPA^(key): [hʌrkl], [hɪrkl]

hurkle (third-person singular simple present hurkles, present participle hurklin, simple past and past participle hurkled)

1. to sit huddled in a crouched position either for warmth or secrecy, to draw oneself together like a crouching animal
2. to walk with the body in a crouching position

hurkle (plural hurkles)

1. (anatomy) the upper part of the thigh, the hip